Gundam SEED: Zeta Destiny
by NEBSparky86
Summary: Three Gundam pilots of the AEUG are sent into CE 72 and are forced to fight for either ZAFT or Orb. Meanwhile Stella captures Shinn believing he his the boy from her dreams. Will Stella find love in a divided world of Naturals and Coordinators?
1. Chapter 1

Gundam SEED Zeta Destiny

This is another fanfic that has nothing to do with the Shadow Marines. I'm sure you'll be saying, "Thank God!" In this fanfic I'm doing a retelling of Gundam SEED Destiny except with a few twists and turns. You'll just have to find out what they are. Please leave comments to help improve the story.

Chapter 1: Nightmares and Arrivals

Girty Lue

4:30 a.m. PLANT Standard Time

"NO!!!!" screamed Stella Loussier as she woke up from her sleep, waking her two teammates Sting Oakley and Auel Neider.

"What is it Stella?" asked Auel as he rubbed his eyes before throwing himself back on the bed.

"Did you have another bad dream again?" asked Sting in his sleep.

Stella was afraid to tell them about her dreams, about she died by the hands of someone who was trying to stop fighting or how someone she fell in love with in her dream either killed her or they were killed by someone else. She looked at Sting and Auel and just threw herself back on the bed and fell back to sleep; but it wouldn't do much of anything as she twitched, tossed and turned trying to forget the nightmare she had.

6:30 a.m.

Stella woke refreshed eating her breakfast calmly and quietly as Sting and Auel slowly lurched their way into the mess hall. As always Auel left his uniform unkempt as it looked like he wanted to show off that he was buff and tough enough to take on anyone. Sting on the other hand made sure his uniform was nice and his jacket buttoned up properly. Stella looked at both of her teammates and silently thought about her nightmare from last night and the person she saw in her dream. It seemed to Stella that the person she fell in love was a ZAFT soldier to be exact; he seemed to be cold and rude at first, but he was rather warm and kind on the inside as he showed her the kindness she sought after all abuse and torture from that one place she came from; she couldn't remember. Stella wanted to know more about this ZAFT soldier with a cold exterior and warm interior; it didn't really matter to her if she would get in trouble just because the lover from her dreams was a Coordinator. Sting and Auel abruptly interrupted Stella's line of thought as Auel slammed his tray down to the table next to Stella causing her to flinch.

"So what that dream about, Stella?" asked Auel as he slammed some eggs down his throat.

Stella looked at Auel and gave him a dirty look as she replied, "It doesn't matter what it was about. It was just a dream. And close your mouth when chew; it's disgusting to watch you chew." Stella then picked up her tray and floated towards the kitchen and left the mess hall.

Auel looked at Sting confused and Sting said, "You know she does have a point, it's really disgusting to watch you chew when talk. Besides, I don't think she wants to tell us about her dreams."

"Yeah, well she's not gonna get help from us or Neo if she doesn't tell anyone," said Auel after he wolfed down the last of his bacon.

"Maybe that's the point," remarked Sting before taking a drink from his orange juice.

"Maybe what's the point?"

Sting and Auel turned around to find the owner of that voice was their commanding officer, Captain Neo Roanoke, the leader of the 81st Autonomous Mobile Suit Group better known as Phantom Pain.

"Is there something going on that I don't know about?" asked Neo as he sat down next to Sting.

Sting sighed and explained about how Stella was having nightmares that woke them both up when she screamed. Neo sat as Sting explained the situation and recollected as he often heard Stella scream too.

"I'm sure it's nothing," said Neo as he began to eat. "But right now we got a mission from the higher ups; the three of you need to make sure you're ready in thirty minutes in the briefing room."

The three Extended soldiers waited patiently for Neo to arrive into the briefing room for this mission they were going to get. Auel paced back and forth across the floor; Sting sat in the chair he usually sat in and caught up on his reading; Stella just sat and pondered her dreams again like she tried to do before Auel rudely interrupted her line of thought. She looked like she was dazed until Neo arrived and his sudden arrival snapped her out of her dazed state.

"All right we got word that ZAFT has built three new mobile suits at a colony they call Armory One," began Neo the lights dimmed down and images suddenly appeared on the monitor. "Your mission will be secure these three new prototypes and escape with them. You be receiving help from within the ZAFT military."

"Why do we have to have help from Coordinators?" Auel asked in disgust.

"Because they're actually double agents inserted within the ZAFT military," answered Neo. "Chairman Durandal has begun to allow Naturals to join the ZAFT military, but only in small numbers."

Neo continued with the briefing giving the layout of the colony but mostly the military base on the colony. He also gave them orders to destroy as much of the base as possible. Neo assured the three Extended soldiers that the Girty Lue would be in the area to provide support and cause as much chaos as possible. Auel smirked in approval of Neo's last statement.

Near Armory One

Roux looked at PLANTS colony in amazement; she had never seen colonies look like hourglasses. She and the other two pilots, Elle Vianno and Elepo Puru were used to seeing cylinder shaped colonies and the hourglass colonies were a new concept to them.

"Hey Roux what are we gonna do?" Elle asked Roux. "We've got get to a colony and see if we get some help."

"I know, I know," said Roux in a stressed out tone, "I just don't think we'll get much help from whoever runs this colony."

"Well we won't know if don't try," replied Puru cheerfully.

Roux smiled as she took the lead and the three of them headed towards Armory One; at first they saw a shuttle and Roux thought about escorting it to the spaceport but decided against it, especially after spotting two ZAFT GINNS. The GINNS spotted and surrounded the Zeta, Qubeley Mk II and Gundam Mk II. Roux had Elle and Elepo surrender without fighting; she too surrendered without fighting. The GINNS escorted the three Gundams to Armory One quietly and quickly without any problems. However once they got inside the GINNS had to go and help retrieve three stolen prototype mobile suits stolen by young teenagers and they had to be recaptured promptly.

"You two want to help out?" Roux asked Elle and Elepo.

"Why not," answered Elle. "I mean we need to know more about our surroundings, right?"

Roux gave Elle a slight nod and shut off the visual COM before speeding towards the stolen Abyss and engaged it in battle along with the ZAFT mobile suits fighting it.

"What the hell?!" snarled Auel as he was shocked to see the Zeta Gundam charging at it firing its beam rifle. "I've never seen that mobile suit; is it another ZAFT mobile suit we should've taken?"

"It doesn't matter Auel," answered Sting. "We'll just have to destroy it along with the base and the mobile suits"

"Roger that," said Auel as he smirked at the Zeta Gundam.

Elepo and Elle headed towards the Gaia and Chaos who was already fighting the another Gundam like them, the Impulse and a ZAKU piloted by Athrun Zala who was protecting Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha.

"Hey you two need help over there?" Elle called out to the pilot of the Impulse.

"Thanks, but I can handle these two on my own," replied the pilot of the Impulse.

"Right, sure you can," Elle said under her breath or at least she thought was under her breath.

Gundam Mk II and Qubeley Mk II joined the fight despite being told not to help him. Puru and the Qubeley Mk II fought with the Chaos while Elle and the pilot of the Impulse dealt with the Gaia. Elle noticed how skilled the pilot of the Impulse was with his mobile suit as he was able to match Stella's move with relative ease. Elle and pilot of the Impulse, Shinn Asuka quickly introduced themselves while fighting with Stella and the Gaia. Roux continued to fight with the Abyss until she saw that she was out of energy for her beam rifle and beam saber was out of energy. She did the only thing she could do, head for the warship and beg them for help with the Zeta Gundam. Roux quickly broke off the fight with Auel and transformed the Zeta into its fighter mode and flew to the Minerva, ZAFT's new warship hoping they would at least help her out. Before landing on the Minerva, Roux turned the Zeta back into its mobile suit form and landed on the deck after Athrun's ZAKU landed on the deck. Within twenty minutes a hole was created by a panicking Stella who didn't want to die. Once the hole had been created the Gaia had been sucked into the vacuum of space along with Shinn who was foolish enough to get close to the Gaia when the hole was formed. Once the Impulse was out in space the Phase Shift armor had disappeared and he tried to fire the beam rifle but it too was out of energy.

Outside Armory One, near the Girty Lue

Stella saw the enemy mobile suit was out of power and she easily destroy it and that would be the end of it. But instead destroying it she chose to capture it in her panicking fear of dying instead and possibly the pilot too if he was the person from her dreams. She shook the thought out of her head but failed. She got deeper into her thoughts as she tried to remember if she heard pilot's voice in her dreams or saw his face. Stella stayed like that until Sting contacted her.

"Hey Stella what are you doing with that enemy mobile suit?" asked Sting confused.

"I-I'm taking the mobile suit to Neo," stammered Stella. "I'm sure Neo would appreciate it if we took this one too."

"I'm sure he'll appreciate it too," said Sting getting his bearings and locating the Girty Lue.

"But what about the pilot?" asked Auel as he joined the group. "I guess we'll have fun killing him once we get back on board."

Stella said nothing as her mobile suit still had the Impulse restrained, floated gently to the Girty Lue as soon as it appeared from beneath its Mirage Colloid protection. The bay doors opened as a mobile armor launched from the ship to provide cover for them until they got back into the ship. Neo looked and saw the fourth mobile suit being restrained by the Gaia.

"What's with the fourth mobile suit?" asked Neo in surprise.

"This one appeared from a battleship and fought with us," answered Sting. "It ran out of power and Stella captured it hoping you'd appreciate the bonus she brought you."

Neo smirked and nodded in approval and said, "Good work Stella we'll take it too; no sense in letting ZAFT have better weapons than us."

"What about the pilot?" asked Auel hoping he could have fun and kill Shinn at his own pleasure. "Can we kill him?"

"No Auel," answered Neo. "We're not going kill him. We'll simply use him until we no longer need him."

Auel huffed in disappointment that he couldn't take pleasure in killing a Coordinator. But then again Neo had a point; the pilot could be useful and if Shinn got out of line he'd have a good excuse to kill him. But how would Neo's superiors act if they found out that he let a single Coordinator live, let alone that he was using a space monster for the purpose of helping his unit. Stella guided the Impulse to where she wanted him to park it. After Neo's mobile armor had been recovered, the Girty Lue began to make it's withdraw from the area and headed towards the Moon. Shinn thought that his life was going to end once the Earth Forces technicians opened the cockpit of the Impulse and forced him out. At first he thought about fighting back but he wasn't in a position to fight back because his mobile suit was out of power and it would take awhile for this ship to recharge its power so he could make the escape. Stella stood there waiting to see the pilot of the Impulse come out and was surprised to see Shinn.

"All right I can move on my own," snapped Shinn as he was annoyed by the soldier, assigned to escort him to the brig, jabbing the barrel of his rifle into his back.

Shinn took off his helmet to reveal the rest of his face; Stella was surprised to see that the pilot look so… she couldn't quite put her finger on the word she was trying to think of. As she thought about the word she thought about Shinn, Stella decided that she would take Shinn herself to the brig as she shoved the soldier away and grabbed hold of his left arm floating towards the door.

"So I guess I'm your prisoner, huh?" Shinn asked Stella after leaving the launch bay.

Stella froze thinking that Shinn said she was his prisoner and she started to tremble in terror thinking about what Neo said that ZAFT did to prisoners of war.

"I don't wanna be a prisoner!" Stella exclaimed shaking in fear as she lunged at Shinn trying to beat him.

Shinn was puzzled by Stella's sudden break down; if she was the one who piloted the Gaia, why did she break down in terror. But Shinn couldn't fantasize about 'what ifs,' he had to calm her down and make her feel safe.

"It's all right you're not going to be a prisoner," Shinn said as calm and gentle as he could be while he embraced her. "I won't let you be a prisoner; I promise."

All of a sudden Stella calmed down after hearing Shinn assure her that she wasn't going to be a prisoner. Shinn smiled and said, "I was talking about me being **your** prisoner not the other way around."

"Oh, I'm sorry," was all Stella could say.

"I should be the one apologizing," said Shinn as he put Stella's hand on his left arm. "Shouldn't you be taking me to the brig until your commander gets back?"

Explosions rocked the Girty Lue as it was being pursued by the Minerva, hot on their tail. Instead of doing what she said she was going to do with Shinn, Stella pulled Shinn with her into a compartment where Sting and Auel where waiting in until they got away from ZAFT. Stella clung to Shinn, afraid that she was going to die. Shinn blushed out of embarrassment; he didn't know one thing about her and yet she clung to him hoping that he would protect her from dying. Shinn did the only the only thing he could of and right in front of Stella's own teammates.

"Don't worry everything will be okay," Shinn said as calm as possible to Stella, "you're not going to die. I'll protect you; I swear I'll protect you."

Sting and Auel took notice as Shinn said those words reacting as if Stella was going to go on a killing rampage like she usually did if someone told her she was going die. But Stella instead calmed down still clinging to Shinn; she felt relaxed and laid her head on his shoulder. Auel was dumbfounded when he saw how Stella started to like Shinn; on the side Sting thought Auel was jealous because the Coordinator found a way to keep her calm and he was better looking than him. No, that wasn't it; Auel didn't care about looks the only thing he cared about was getting the biggest target to take out. Sting thought that maybe the Coordinator wasn't as bad as he taught to believe; normally he would've killed Shinn because he is a Coordinator and he was enhanced to compete or be better than Coordinators.

Armory One

Roux waited patiently as the ZAFT technicians hastily made upgrades to the weapons of the Zeta Gundam and Gundam Mk II. They replaced the old beam rifles with new ones that didn't expend much energy for one shot like their last ones did. The rest of the upgrades would've been done at the Carpentaria base but he decided to let Morgenroete finish the upgrading for them; it was the least he could do after ZAFT had "borrowed" their scientists to develop their new mobile suits and the Minerva. Chairman Durandal told the technicians to send the parts to Morgenroete in Orb because the Minerva had the Chief Representative on board the ship. The technicians hurriedly put the parts on a shuttle they used for black ops missions dropping into neutral countries. It was a perfect cover for them and the Earth Forces wouldn't fire on a shuttle full of civilians heading to Orb. The shuttle raced as fast as it could and safely landed at orb while Roux, Elle and Puru took off to reinforce the Minerva since the Impulse was captured by the Earth Forces in the first place.

ZAFT Trans-atmospheric Assault Ship Minerva

"Sir, we've got three inbound mobile suits approaching from five o'clock," said the radar operator

"Three mobile suits?" asked Deputy Captain Arthur Trine. "Are they with the Earth Forces?"

"No sir," answered the radar operator. "Checking thermal patterns… it's the Zeta Gundam, Gundam Mk II and Qubeley Mk II."

"Sigh… Meyrin, better inform the Captain of our new arrivals," instructed Arthur.

"Yes sir," replied Meyrin as she sent Captain Gladys a message of the AEUG's three Gundam pilots arrival to the Minerva.

"Roux Louka requesting permission to board this ship," Roux requested Captain Gladys.

"Permission granted for all three of you," replied Captain Gladys.

"Thank you Captain," said Roux as she bowed to Captain Gladys.

Elle got out of her mobile suit along with Puru; Talia couldn't help but notice that Puru was just a little girl, eleven years old to be precise, and she was already piloting a mobile suit. It wrenched her stomach to think that children, young as at least Elle and Roux, were already fighting on the front lines of wars. The last war was a prime example of this thought; so many young people died in battles before they could have a promising life.

"Um, are you okay ma'am?" asked Vino, one of the young mobile suit mechanics.

"Oh, yes I'm fine," answered Captain Gladys. "Have the three young girls share a room with Lunamaria or Abby."

"Yes ma'am," replied Vino as he went to tell Lunamaria and Abby the Captain's instructions.

Junius Seven

After everyone settled down a disaster was about to brew as explosives were placed at strategic places of the colony as preparations to enact the plan were about complete. The leader of the group of GINNS took a deep breath and gave the signal to begin the operation that would finally wipe out every last Natural that murdered those of Junius Seven. Unfortunately the thrusters somehow gave off signals that reached as far as the Girty Lue and even the Minerva. The leader realized too late that ZAFT were already sending a demolition crew to break up the colony. So he did the only thing he could do, and that was order his men to be ready a counterinsurgent attempt to thwart their plan. This plan, if it succeeded, would be the beginning of new mankind. Coordinators would be the masters of the universe and any other Natural not dead would live only to serve the new mankind and they would be nothing more than inferior animals.

Girty Lue

"Captain Roanoke!" cried Matthew Andrews, the communications officer. "We've got signals coming from Junius Seven; it's moving toward Earth!"

"What?!" said Neo in surprise. "Get Sting, Auel, Stella and the ZAFT pilot, what's his name?"

"Uh he said his name was Shinn Asuka, sir," answered Matthew.

"Yeah, right," replied Neo as he floated to the elevator, "Have Shinn join the Extended pilots in the Briefing Room as well."

"Yes sir!" exclaimed Matthew as he saluted Neo.

"Sting Oakley, Auel Neider, Stella Loussier and Shinn Asuka, report to the briefing room immediately."

Shinn looked at the three Extended pilots around him in the briefing room; he had mostly one concern about Auel, the other two he didn't know what to think about. …Well Stella, he thought, was really beautiful and they had gotten closer and bonded with each other in just a short two days on the Girty Lue; mostly because Stella kept Shinn at her side and never him out of her sight. She felt that she was responsible for keeping an eye on Shinn and making sure that he stayed out of trouble and alive. Shinn looked at Sting; he was quiet a lot and never really talked much but he did like to play sports like basketball with Auel and maybe once with Shinn if he and Auel wanted to double team him for fun. Shinn then turned and looked at Auel and felt a little uneasy being around Auel because he could swear that Auel was looking for an excuse to kill him. Shinn wondered if Auel had seen a psychiatrist and if he had been dubbed as a trigger-happy freak; Shinn would never tell that Auel's face because it might be the last thing he ever said. All three Extended pilots were in their pilot's uniform but Shinn's was taken away from him and he wasn't going to wear the pilot uniform of a common mobile suit pilot; he was an ace, not some grunt pilot. The only reason he got captured was because he got overzealous and ran out of power for his mobile suit. The door slid open and Neo stepped in; as he stepped in the pilots all saluted him and he returned the salute.

"I'm surprised that you're saluting an enemy officer even though you're a prisoner," Neo commented to Shinn, trying to get him to snap at him. But Shinn refused to crack and only replied with a dirty look, "I'm only doing this to stay alive for as long as I can."

Neo cracked a smile and nodded to Shinn; he then showing photos of Junius Seven to the four pilots.

"As you're all aware this is Junius Seven," began Neo, "a place of tragedy and lost souls. We've just received transmissions of orders that indicate Junius Seven is on a collusion course with Earth."

The four pilots were stunned to hear this; Junius Seven was the site where the Bloody Valentine War started and ended. How was it possible that Junius Seven was going to collide with Earth, wondered Shinn in his mind. Neo continued the briefing stating that they were going temporarily join forces with the Minerva and the demolition ship to assist in breaking up the colony. The Extended pilots were shocked to hear they were going to help their enemy, ZAFT.

"Hold on," protested Auel, "why are we helping the Coordinators? Aren't they the enemy?"

"Yes but think about all the lives that will be lost if it hits the Earth," snapped Neo.

"Hey, why don't you think of it as blowing something up," Shinn remarked sarcastically, "I mean you do like blow stuff up, right?"

Auel looked at Shinn and gave him an evil grin of approval; he put his arm around Shinn and said, "I like you, Coordinator. You understand what I like and where I want go."

"Gee, thanks Auel," said Shinn as he took Auel's arm off his shoulder, "and my name is Shinn, Shinn Asuka."

"Well Shinn Asuka, I'm going to let you pilot and maintain your machine," said Neo before freezing up himself, seeing a flashback of him in a past life telling another kid that he had to maintain his machine.

"Wait, hold on," said Shinn surprised at Neo, "what do you mean 'your machine?'"

"You piloted it," answered Neo, "it's your responsibility. Oh there's pilot suit for you in the lockers for you. It's not your ZAFT suit, I hope you like it; I… found it in the locker."

"If you're talking about the grunt suits, you can forget about it," Shinn said defiantly.

Neo smirked and left the briefing room, not before he said, "We have an extra pilot suit in the locker next to Auel's locker."

The Extended pilots left the briefing room and headed to their mobile suits while Shinn went back to the locker room and found an Earth Forces red ace pilot suit and helmet and changed into it quickly so he could join the others and launch. He made his way to the launch bay where saw Stella was waiting for him before she boarded her Gundam. Auel and Sting took a quick look at Shinn as Stella guided him to the Impulse; they thought he looked like a real pilot wearing an Earth Forces pilot suit instead of those skimpy ZAFT pilot suits. Stella smiled at Shinn before getting into the Gaia and closing the cockpit; Shinn returned her smile and boarded the Impulse.

"Shinn, are you okay with this?" asked Stella.

Shinn was confused by Stella's question and asked, "What do you mean 'Am I okay with this?'"

"She's asking you if you're okay with fighting with the Earth Forces," Sting said calmly before Auel could get out of hand.

"Like I told Neo earlier," began Shinn, "I'm only cooperating to stay alive for as long as possible."

Shinn began think about kicking himself later on for that comment. He was really drawn to Stella and still couldn't understand why someone like her could be in the Earth Forces. It wasn't the real reason he stayed with them and didn't try to escape; he fallen in love with Stella despite the fact that she and her two teammates had stolen the Gaia, Chaos and Abyss. Sting and Auel knew the real reason he decided to stay behind; he swore to Stella that he would protect her and planned on keeping that promise even if meant he would be declared a traitor by ZAFT. Sting and Auel decided between themselves not to try and push him any farther until after the mission was complete. Neo listened to the conversation on the bridge and began to have another flashback from his past life. This flashback was when asked a ZAFT pilot if he was okay with the mission given to them by Lord Uzumi Nara Athha, even if it meant he would be declared a traitor by his own father. He had even explained by his reasoning to some blonde haired girl who challenged him just the kid's father was the PLANT Supreme Chairman. Neo had getting these flashbacks ever since Shinn came aboard the Girty Lue and been hanging around Sting, Auel and Stella. He began to think about his past life; his life when he was known as Mu La Flaga, the traitorous Hawk of Endymion who fought against the Earth Forces after the Archangel deserted the frontlines at the Battle of JOSH-A in Alaska. No, it wasn't possible there was no way he was that traitor in some past life; he was still Captain Neo Roanoke, the commander of the 81st Autonomous Mobile Suit Group, and it wasn't going to change any day.

The four Gundams flew in together in a tight formation towards Junius Seven when they saw flashes around the area of Junius Seven.

"What's going on here?" asked Sting dumbfounded by the situation.

"Oh man there's already action and I'm missing it!" exclaimed Auel. "Dammit, I gotta get a piece of the action before it's too late."

"Hold on a minute Auel," said Shinn trying to stop Auel while simultaneously checking the battle around the destroyed colony. "Is that the Joule team?"

"What do you mean the Joule team, Shinn?" asked Sting.

"It's a mobile suit group led by Commander Yszak Joule," explained Shinn. "He fought in the Bloody Valentine War against the Earth Forces piloting a mobile suit stolen from Heliopolis, the Dual Gundam.

"I'm tagging the Joule team as friendly forces so you don't get confused and destroy both sides."

"Thanks Shinn," said Sting as he raced off to join the heroic effort to save Earth.

Shinn looked at Stella and asked her, "Shall we get to work?"

Stella gave him a slight nod and both of them joined the battle as well.

Junius Seven, en route on collision course with Earth

"Damn these guys are tough for terrorists," snarled Yszak as he fought with a GINN trying to break away from him and destroy one of asteroid breakers about to be activated.

They were tough alright, since most of his team only had a few who had seen combat and the majority of them of had just become ZAFT Reds fresh out of the Academy. He had hoped for a squad of professionals not a squad that was a bunch of newbies and a few veterans. Dearka wasn't fairing any better with the squad he had under his command. Dearka returned to ZAFT after the Three Ships Alliance had quietly dissolved itself and parted ways. He still thought about how much he was lucky not to get executed by his superiors; Yszak was in the same boat mostly because he shot the shuttle carrying civilians from Heliopolis when the Archangel made its escape. But Chairman Durandal spoke on their behalf convinced the Council to lighten their sentences. They lost their Gundams and Dearka was sentenced to four months prison time for deserting at Orb and was demoted. Dearka was even struggling to keep his relationship with Miriallia from down the drain. But Dearka couldn't think about Miriallia, he had a job to and it was to support the demolition team breaking up Junius Seven. It was a pity that they couldn't try to put it back into the Debris Belt and leave there; but it would an impossible task considering how much fuel and manpower they would have to use. The GINNs were a big problem to deal with while guarding the demolition team and the asteroid breakers. Mobile suits from the Minerva arrived to provide support for Yszak and Dearka and things started to look better until more GINNs began to swarm the demolition team and their protectors. Things again took a turn for the worse and couldn't get any worse. Gundam Mk II constantly had to fight off GINNs that took the place of one fallen GINN. Roux had to dodge colony fragments and enemy fire at the same time; this coupled with the fact that she wouldn't survive if she got hit by a blast from a beam rifle; or at least that's what she thought as her mobile suit got nailed a couple times by beams and didn't explode. She guessed that her armor was strong enough to take some punishment; but she wondered for how long it would last.

"Hey look it's the mobile suit I fought with at the ZAFT base," Auel said with gusto as he charged towards the Zeta Gundam hoping to play the hero. "That needs a helping hand; so I'm going to give them a hand."

"Hey Auel!" exclaimed Sting as Auel hastily sped off to help the Zeta Gundam. "We should try to… huh?" Sting noticed the Qubeley Mk II struggling herself and rushed to help her. Shinn and Stella both noticed Elle in her Gundam Mk II and went to help Elle. But Shinn needed different equipment for this type of battle. Luckily for Shinn the Minerva had the other two Silhouettes, Force and Blaster. Shinn changed direction towards the Minerva while simultaneously making contact with the Girty Lue to retrieve the Sword Silhouette. Shinn detached the Sword Silhouette and boosted to the Minerva. Stella became nervous and followed him.

"Shinn, where are you going?" Stella asked nervous that Shinn would rejoin ZAFT again.

"I need another Silhouette from the Minerva," answered Shinn. "I don't plan to forget about my promise. I will protect you; I swear I'll protect you."

"Captain, I got two mobile suits approaching," said the radar operator. "Checking thermal heat patterns… It's the Impulse and Gaia!"

Captain Gladys and Chairman Durandal, who had boarded the Minerva during the Armory One incident, were surprised to see the Impulse and Gaia return together. Durandal began to think that Shinn had been killed until they heard him contact them.

"Minerva send out the Force Silhouette," barked Shinn getting into position to receive it. "I know you have doubts about me still being alive; but here I am, alive and still fighting."

Meyrin looked at Captain Gladys awaiting instructions and Captain Gladys looked at Chairman Durandal who gave her a nod of approval. The captain sighed and said to Meyrin, "Send out the Force Silhouette."

"Yes ma'am!" said Meyrin as her fingers danced on the keyboard to give out orders to send out the Force Silhouette.

"Why is the Gaia not attacking the Impulse,' wondered Captain Gladys as she saw the Gaia to left of the Impulse waiting patiently for the Impulse to be equipped with the Force Silhouette. Either Shinn decided infiltrate the Earth Forces on his own or he really had joined the Earth Forces when he was captured. No, right now those questions had to be saved for later; right now breaking up Junius Seven had to take priority and it seemed that two of the hijackers came to help if not all of them and Shinn too. Captain Gladys watched as the Force Silhouette streaked towards the Impulse and attached itself to the Impulse.

"Shinn, is it what you wanted?" asked Stella as they turned towards the continuing battle and boosted away from the Minerva.

"Yeah, I needed this particular Silhouette," answered Shinn as he turned back towards the Minerva, remembering his manners. "Thanks Captain."

Shinn and Stella raced back towards the battle hoping to catch some of what was left of the battle. They got exactly what they wanted, except the terrorists were still resilient. Despite their resilience, the work was progressing three asteroid breakers had completed their tasks and were falling into the atmosphere, one had been destroyed and the other two were still falling towards their designated target points. Lunamaria and Athrun protected one breaker while Yszak and Dearka had joined together and protect the last breaker. The battle dragged on for another ten minutes which was left until Junius Seven fell into the atmosphere. The terrorist leader had no other choice but finally get in the fight and ensure that the colony fell himself and that all the Naturals would die screaming in agony and suffer the way people of Junius Seven suffered when those inferior Naturals fired a nuclear missile at Junius Seven. In the leader's mind ZAFT had gotten weak because Ilene Kanaiver had made the ZAFT military weaker and Chairman Durandal wasn't doing enough to get the military back up to its former strength; so he was going to take things into his own hands. There was a problem he had to take care of; there were the ZAFT forces trying to protect the Earth and there were the four Gundams that came from the Earth Forces carrier. Unfortunately he met his end when Shinn and Stella snuck up on him from the left and right skewering him with their beam sabers. The leader was dead but a lot of people would die because pieces of Junius Seven weren't broken down enough to burn up in the atmosphere.

"Stella, Shinn our time is up," informed Sting.

"Roger that," replied Stella as Gaia grabbed the arm of the Impulse and boosted away from remaining fragments.

"But the fragments are still too big for it to cause minimal…" Shinn started to protest as the Gaia pulled the Impulse away from remaining fragments.

"I know but we'll fall to Earth if we don't get back to the Girty Lue," Stella said gently as they boosted away from the fragments. "Neo, can you send a message to the nations of Earth warning them of the fragments?"

"I could try but the message won't make it in time," answered Neo before sighing.

"Try it anyway," suggested Shinn. "We should still try to save as many lives as possible."

"Never thought a couple of kids would talk me into trying to save the world," Neo said under his breath.

He sent out the message simultaneously to all nations warning them about the fragments of Junius Seven and that they should mobilize their military and shoot as many fragments as possible.

Many nations did receive Neo's warning about the fragments and had to hastily mobilize what they had ready to go at a moment's notice. They mobilized mobile suits, fighter planes and any warship loaded and ready to go. Fragments did impact Earth; but the causality figures were in the tens of thousands instead of hundreds of millions. There were cheers of jubilation throughout the planet praising the efforts of ZAFT's heroics and combined efforts of the Earth Alliance ship in the area fighting the terrorists and sending the warning that saved millions of lives from dying in the Break the World Incident. Although there were shouts jubilation for ZAFT, there also jeers and screams for war with ZAFT as those people thought that ZAFT had sponsored the drop and made it look like they were the heroes. Djbril was at lest pleased that were people who wanted war with the filthy Coordinators. Those who wanted war with the space monsters were smart thought Djbril as he sipped his vintage red wine from the vineyards of France. Either way the Coordinators were all monsters who deserved to die along with those Naturals who felt that ZAFT were the good guys.

"The only way to control this planet is to remove those traitors who accept ZAFT," Djbril said to himself as he continued to sip his wine. "Anywhere ZAFT has a presence, we will torch the base and all of the inhabitants of the city its next to. Those Naturals who accept and mingle with ZAFT will all die and their blood will run with those of the space monsters."

A week later

Girty Lue, L4 Mendel Colony

Stella was sound asleep; she had sleeping a lot better now that Shinn had been her and the other Extended pilots. Her dreams had pretty much gone away and her two… no three teammates didn't hear a peep out of her while slept. Shinn had begun to fall in love with Stella and the same was true for Stella; she fell in love with Shinn. He made her feel safe and he always kept his promise to protect her; but right now Shinn couldn't sleep something was bothering him. He knew that Neo looked like he had been sneaking around the ship and hiding something secretive. He went to go find out what Neo had been hiding. Neo floated towards a compartment in the middle of the ship; Shinn had seen the compartment before; or he thought had seen it. Shinn silently followed him towards the compartment and stopped at an intersection ducking in it to avoid being caught by Neo. Thirty minutes passed and Neo left the compartment and Shinn slipped by him hoping Neo didn't turn and notice him. He entered the empty compartment only to discover three empty pods linked up to a computer console.

"Something tells me I'm not like this," Shinn said to himself as he floated to the computer to look at its contents. "What the hell?!

"What is this thing?"

"They're treatment pods," answered Neo behind Shinn.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Rise of the Neo-Dominion and the Return of Mu La Flaga

This chapter is when I decided to bring Mu La Flaga back. I know it's early but I thought it would be fun to bring him back. Three new Extended pilots take the place of Sting, Auel and Stella and a new Captain to take Neo's place. Please leave comments to help improve the story.

Djbril's Manor, Alexandria, VA

Djbril was furious about Neo; he had betrayed Logos by allowing a Coordinator to live and continue to pilot the mobile suit he was captured in. Neo had also allowed his Extended pilots to get close to the Coordinator and befriend him. This was the last straw and Neo had tried his patience for the last time. He understood that Neo wanted the pilots to be treated as pilots and not as tools like Murata Azrael did with the last three pilots who died at Yakin Do Wei at the hands of Coordinators. All three pilots had died at the hands of Coordinators and even got the names of the three Coordinators who killed his three Extended pilots; Shani Andras had been killed Yszak Joule; Orga Sabnak had been killed by Kira Yamato; and Clotho Buer had been killed by Dearka Elsman. Those three most especially had to be killed so the Coordinators didn't have heroes to rally behind and kill off every last Natural. Djbril took another sip and had another matter on his mind.

"Archangel," he said furiously. "**Archangel!**"

He referred to the ship that had turned on the Earth Forces after they cowardly fled the frontlines from Alaska and fought against them in Orb and at Yakin Do Wei. He looked at then Captain William Sutherland's inquiry into the Archangel's journey to Alaska and Azrael's report from Orb and at the Mendel Colony. At the start of their journey the crew picked up the Coordinator, Kira Yamato, and he piloted the Strike. They should've killed him on the spot, thought Djbril. Him and the four young fools who defended him; it shouldn't have mattered if they were citizens of Orb. Coordinators weren't human beings and so were any Naturals who supported them. Djbril continued looking at the inquiry; then they fought ZAFT in the desert of North Africa against the Desert Tiger Andrew Waltfield along with Desert Dawn. At least the Coordinator did something useful before he disappeared and reappeared again at Orb fighting against the Earth Forces. Looking at the report from Orb, Djbril saw that the Archangel reappeared fighting against the Earth Forces and had in their possession the Strike, a mobile suit called the Freedom and the Buster, a mobile suit that was captured by ZAFT and fought against the Archangel at the start; but then after capture, it began fighting with Orb when he joined the Archangel crew and fought in the feeble attempt to stop the Earth Forces from laying down punishment on Orb for aiding ZAFT in the their operations in Alaska and Panama. Speaking of Orb, they had a new chief representative, the daughter of that Coordinator loving fool Uzumi Nara Athha, Cagalli Yula Athha. He smirked at the thought of Cagalli trying to put up a fight and failing. The Seirans would deal with Cagalli and she would no longer be a threat once they took her out of the picture.

'That young Athha is a fool,' thought Djbril, 'thinking she could keep Orb out of the conflict that was to come. She'll either have to choose the correct path and join the efforts to wipe out the Coordinators or be destroyed with the Coordinators she allowed into Orb's borders. Once the space monsters in space had been destroyed the other space monsters on Earth would all be slaughtered and their blood would be spilled.' "For the preservation of our blue and pure world," Djbril said aloud after taking another sip of his wine. He smiled at the thought of Cagalli being under the Seiran's control quickly; then the traitorous crew of the Archangel and their Coordinator hero would be killed.

ZAFT trans-atmospheric battleship, Minerva

A week later

Cagalli would be staying on board the Minerva longer than expected; in actuality, it was a blessing so she didn't have to argue with Yuna and his father. 'But then again they'd sign the treaty while she wasn't there and say I'm an imposture,' thought Cagalli. She needed to get to Orb soon as possible but the Earth Forces were preventing any ships from leaving the PLANTS with a blockade. Captain Gladys planned to get Cagalli through the blockade peacefully or force, if it was necessary. The Zeta Gundam, Qubeley Mk II and Gundam Mk II were all getting their armor upgraded to Phase Shift and the other upgrades for each individual Gundam. Zeta Gundam's upgrades were almost complete thanks to Chairman Durandal; the Phase Shift armor and new mini rocket launchers for it. Qubeley Mk II was receiving experimental mini DRAGOON pods to replace the funnels Puru was using. They seemed to work better in trial stages that Puru tested them in; not to mention that they were completely compatible with the Qubeley Mk II. Gundam Mk II not only got the Phase Shift armor and weapon upgrade, but it also got what looked like a medium-sized fighter aircraft attachment with even more kick. The aircraft sported a 315 mm Agni cannon, two missile pods and an additional high energy beam rifle. The design was similar to the Earth Forces Skygrasper support fighter that the Archangel carried with during its time on Earth before returning to space. This reminded Elle of the G-Defenser, a support fighter that attached to the Gundam Mk II in the Gryps Conflict.

"So I'm getting a G-Defenser support unit to supplement, my Gundam's power," Elle said to herself aloud.

"Actually ma'am it's not called G-Defenser," the technician said to Elle before pausing and thinking to himself. "But you know, G-Defenser sounds like a kickass name for a support unit. All that's missing is a pilot to fly this baby." Elle smiled, but she wondered if any ZAFT pilots would cooperate with her.

'These people keep talking about Naturals and Coordinators,' Elle thought as she continued to do her work readying the Gundam Mk II for its support unit that was going to attach itself to her Gundam.

"Um excuse me, sir," spoke up Elle, "what are Naturals and Coordinators?"

"You're kidding," said the technician in amazement, "you've never heard of Naturals **or** Coordinators?"

Elle shook her head and the technician began to explain, "Naturals are normal people who haven't had their genes modified or tampered with. Coordinators are people like me, Captain Gladys and Chairman Durandal. Our genetic structure has modified before we are born. We perform various tasks better than any Natural on Earth. There are a few Naturals who can keep up with us Coordinators; and I really stress there are **few** Naturals who can compete with us Coordinators.

"You're either a Natural or Coordinator," finished the technician as went back to his work on the new unit that was going to be called G-Defenser.

"I'm not a Coordinator," Elle said as she went back to work.

"Then I guess you're one of the few Naturals who'll side with ZAFT," suggested the technician.

"No I'm a Newtype," said Elle looking at the technician.

"A Newtype?" asked the technician, confused.

"Newtypes are people who have psychic-like abilities," Roux began as she entered the conversation after hearing the technician explain what Naturals and Coordinators were. "Newtypes have the ability to sense danger and can use various machines that only Newtypes can use."

"So in a sense you Newtypes are like us Coordinators," suggested the technician.

"I guess you can say that," said Roux before hearing someone running from troublesome ZAFT soldiers.

She ran to see a young man running from three ZAFT soldiers who looked drunk on duty.

"You can't run forever Natural!" shouted one of the soldiers as he was catching up to the young man.

The young man tripped and the drunken soldiers finally caught up and were ready to beat him when the technician threw a wrench at the leader, knocking him out with one strike. The other drunken soldiers looked and saw the technician before they finally passed out from all the alcohol they drank. Elle saw the young man and ran over to him. He was medium height, wore orange tinted glasses and had on what looked like an Earth Forces uniform. The uniform was that of a non-commission soldier.

"Are you okay buddy?" asked Elle as she helped him up.

"Yeah, but I never thought that I'd get chased here in this ship by a few drunken soldiers," replied the young man.

"What's going on here?"

Everyone turned in saw who was asking and saw Athrun coming down from a higher platform accompanied by Cagalli as they noticed the young man.

"Athrun, that's Sai Argyle," said Cagalli recognizing him.

Athrun recognized him as Sai Argyle from his Earth Forces uniform and helped him up.

"What are you doing here on the Minerva?" asked Athrun.

"I really don't know," answered Sai. "I was delivering something to Captain Gladys before Armory One was attacked and I was stuck on the ship. Then those three soldiers made me run for my life around the ship." He pointed to the three soldiers lying on the ground passed out. Cagalli looked at the three soldiers in disgust; how could the Captain let drunken soldiers work on board the Minerva. Nonetheless, Athrun helped Sai off the ground and he then looked at the G-Defenser in amazement. Sai was amazed at the G-Defenser too; it looked like the Skygrasper and it also looked powerful too. Later Sai was taken to Captain Gladys and he finally delivered what he had to deliver to her. Durandal looked at Sai with caution at first but then with interest of his past.

"Tell us about your self, Mr. Argyle," requested Chairman Durandal.

Sai began by stating he was from the Orb Union like Cagalli; then he moved to stating that he went to a lunar prep school where he graduated earlier than usual and then went to a technical college at the former colony Heliopolis until it was attacked by ZAFT for the Gundams that the Earth Forces had produced in secret. He then told about how he and his friends volunteered to help the understaffed crew of the Archangel and eventually enlisted in the Earth Forces instead going down in a shuttle that was destroyed by mistake. They fought in the desert of Libya against Andrew Waltfeld and struggled against the La Cruise team in the Indian Ocean. Durandal leaned back as he listened to Sai's story looking interested and found it surprising that he had stumbled on a former crew member of the Archangel. Sai finished by telling them that he had been working as a courier for a client in Orb.

"I see," said Chairman Durandal as he met Sai's eyes with interest.

Sai felt uncomfortable when he met the Chairman's eyes; to him something felt wrong but he had to play along with what the Chairman had planned for him.

"How you like to join Miss Vianno and pilot the support unit for her mobile suit?" offered Chairman Durandal. "All of the mobile suit pilots are piloting their own mobile suits and they declined my offer to pilot the unit."

Sai was surprised by the Chairman's offer and almost thought about declining his offer but thought about it and said, "I'll pilot it. But I'll feel out of place as I would be the only…"

"I won't let anybody give you a hard time about being the only Natural on board," assured Captain Gladys.

"Thank you captain," replied Sai.

"We still haven't given the unit a name," said Chairman Durandal pondering a name for it.

"Actually Miss Vianno gave it a name," spoke up Athrun. "She called it G-Defenser because it reminded her of a support unit that was called G-Defenser used during a conflict called the Gryps Conflict."

"I see," replied Chairman Durandal.

"The mechanic thought the name was kickass," Elle said enthusiasm. "Well he thought calling it G-Defenser was kickass." The Chairman smiled and made his way from the Briefing Room to the Captain's quarters. Captain Gladys and Deputy Captain Arthur turned to Sai and introduced themselves.

"I'm Captain Talia Gladys, captain of this ship, Minerva," said Captain Gladys extending a hand out to shake Sai's hand.

"I'm Arthur Trine, the Deputy Captain of this ship," said Arthur as he also extended his hand to Sai. "It's a privilege and an honor to have a former crew member of the famous Archangel joining our crew."

"Thank you," said Sai as shook the hand of both Captain Gladys and Deputy Captain Trine, "it's a privilege for me to be part of this crew."

Once all the modifications were complete and the G-Defenser's OS was paired perfectly for Naturals, the Minerva began to move out towards Earth. Until they got the order.

"Captain, Headquarters is recalling all ships," cried Meyrin as she saw in horror the reason why they were being called back. "The Earth Forces are coming and they've got nukes!"

"What?!" said Arthur in total shock. "How on earth did they get nuclear weapons back so quickly? I thought the Junius Treaty outlawed both sides possessing weapons of mass destruction."

"Yeah, well it didn't seem to stop those bastards," snarled Roux as she headed towards the locker room to get into her flight suit and get into her Gundam to repel the nuclear onslaught to come. Elle, Sai and Puru followed suit and went to the locker rooms to change. Captain Gladys sighed as she saw her reinforcements were going to go throw their lives away but gave the order, nonetheless to move and intercept the nuclear missiles.

Girty Lue

A week ago

"What the hell?! What are those things?" asked Shinn as he looked at the three pods in disgust.

"They're regeneration pods," answered Neo from behind.

Shinn turned around and looked at Neo and was surprised to see his mask was off this time. He saw the sad face Neo had; it was riddled with sadness and guilt.

"Something tells me there's more to these pods then just doing regeneration," Shinn snarled as he crossed his arms. "What aren't you telling me…? No, what aren't you telling Stella and her brothers?"

"Stella's… brothers?" asked Neo confused by what Shinn meant by Stella having brothers. "No, no. Sting and Auel aren't Stella's brothers, they're her teammates.

"And you're right there's more to the regeneration pods. They not just help maintain the three of them, but it also erases their memories if the brass thinks it's necessary."

"Why would you do that?" Shinn asked angrily. "It's cruel to erase someone's memories; even if it's painful."

"I know that," Neo said. "I don't like it either but I have to when I'm told to."

"Sounds to me like you treat them like equipment," Shinn said let his arms go to his sides.

"No, that's not true," protested Neo. "I'm nothing like that bastard Murata Azrael; I treat Stella and her teammates as soldiers." After saying this, he had another flashback about the three mobile suits that attacked with fury at Orb. He had begun to accept the flashbacks as his true memories and threw away the mask to signify his life as Neo Roanoke was over.

"Who are you, Neo?" asked Shinn getting ready to go back to Stella. She was expecting him to be with her in bed.

"Does the 'Hawk of Endymion' ring a bell?" asked Neo.

Shinn's eyes widened, he was in the presence of the man who took out five GINNs with a single mobile armor, a feat impossible for any Natural to pull off. He had learned about the Hawk of Endymion at the Academy and the impossible feat he pulled when they discussed ZAFT's attack on the Earth Force's mining base in the Endymion Crater. Shinn never thought he'd actually meet the Hawk of Endymion in person; he had heard that he had died blocking the shot from a Positronic cannon from striking the Archangel.

"Shinn."

Shinn turned and saw Stella looking for him. Shinn's face turned red from embarrassment as Stella began to pull him back to her quarters while he protested that he wasn't done talking with Neo. Neo sighed; he had no choice but tell them the truth about who he really was not only to the crew, but to the Extended pilots and to Shinn.

The next morning Neo gathered the Extended pilots and Shinn into the briefing room. He took a breath and took off his mask revealing his face. Sting, Auel and Stella were surprised to see Neo's face for the first time. Shinn smiled and paid attention as Neo began to explain.

"You guys know me Captain Neo Roanoke," began Neo, "but that's not my real name. My real name is Mu La Flaga; you may know me as the Hawk of Endymion for my impossible feat of taking out five GINNs in a mobile armor." The three Extended pilots were surprised to hear that name; they knew the name as the traitor who fought against the Earth Alliance in the final stages of the of Bloody Valentine War. But to Stella none of that mattered to her; she wanted to know why this Mu La Flaga person called himself Neo Roanoke. Neo… no Mu La Flaga continued, "I don't know how I survived the blast from the blast of the Dominion's Positronic cannon, but I did survive, then my memories went blank from there.

"I don't plan to fight on the side of the Earth Forces anymore; but I'm not gonna fight with ZAFT either."

"What, you plan to bring back the Three Ships Alliance?" Shinn interrupted Mu.

"Right now I want to look for the Archangel or at least find the crew of the Archangel," answered Mu.

"I see," said Shinn as he crossed his arms and stood. "You lookin to start another war?"

"Shinn!" exclaimed Stella as she grabbed Shinn's arm to stop him from aggravating Mu.

Shinn obeyed Stella and backed off as he sat back down so Mu could finish explaining himself. After two hours what Mu said to them began to sink in and they walked off talking about what Mu said to them. The crew of the Girty Lue was also talking about what Mu revealed to them.

Over the next four days Sting, Auel and Stella were using the regeneration pods less and less because Mu ordered the doctors to lower the dosage of their treatments until they no longer needed to use the regeneration pods. On the fifth day Mu La Flaga gave orders to shut down the regeneration pods for good now that the Extended pilots no longer required the treatments according to the doctors. He was going to end the cruel treatments that those three had to do on a daily basis. He told that to the Extended pilots; Shinn gave a slight nod of approval. Stella and the other two were speechless when Mu explained that the regeneration chambers had more properties then what they were told. Mu was about to continue to explain when he heard from the bridge.

"Commander La Flaga!" cried one of the bridge officers. "We just got orders to attack the PLANTS. Oh God! Oh God! They're gonna nuke the PLANTS!"

Everyone in the briefing room filled with horror when they heard that the Earth Forces would stoop low as to use nuclear weapons on the PLANTS like they tried at the Second Battle of Yakin Do Wei. Shinn became furious when he heard the Earth Forces were using nuclear weapons again. He stormed off to the locker rooms to change into his flight suit and went to the mobile suit bay and prepared to launch in the Impulse with the Force Silhouette. The Extended pilots hurried to the locker rooms and changed into their flight suits as well and follow Shinn to the PLANTS. Stella changed the fastest and hurried as quick as possible to get to Shinn and try to calm him down. By the time she got there, the Impulse was getting fitted with the Force Silhouette. Stella wanted to talk to Shinn, but Sting and Auel stopped her from getting close to Shinn.

"It's best if you don't talk to him when he's mad, Stella," suggested Sting

"Yeah, you don't want him to take him to take his anger out you," added Auel.

Stella became upset and challenged them, "How you two know what Shinn would do if he's angry?"

"Uh hello, we're guys," snapped Auel as pointed to Sting and himself, "that's what guys do when they're angry."

Stella looked down and disappointed at the thought that Shinn would take his anger out on her. It was a scary feeling. Sting and Auel looked at each other and said to Stella, "I'm sure he wouldn't take out his anger on you; but you should be safe and give him some space to let him vent on the Earth Forces."

Stella took one look at the Impulse as it made its way to the catapult and turned to board the Gaia. She would at lest be by at his side and support him in protecting the PLANTS, like he was protecting her as he promised.

Mu made his decision; he and the Extended pilot would support and help Shinn fight off the nuclear attack from the barbarians who tried the same thing two years ago. It would be the last time the Earth Forces used them again; he got ready and boarded his Exxus mobile armor for launch.

"Captain Lee set course for L5 PLANTS Colony region," ordered Mu. "Engines to maximum, we've got to get there as fast as possible."

"Yes sir," acknowledged Captain Lee.

Shinn sat impatiently as the Girty Lue changed course to the PLANTS; he had to arrive at the PLANTS quickly otherwise the PLANTS would be destroyed by those monsters of the Alliance. While he sat in the cockpit impatiently, Stella moved the Gaia behind the Impulse and decided to go against Sting and Auel's advice and floated to the cockpit of the Impulse to talk to Shinn and try to calm him down. Shinn was surprised to see Stella floating outside his cockpit. He opened his cockpit and Stella entered so she could talk to him.

"Stella, I'm going to the PLANTS and repel the…" Shinn paused as Stella put her hand towards his mouth as a way quieting him down.

"I know you're going to the PLANTS," Stella said calmly, "and we're going with you. Sting, Auel and I are going to help you."

"Even if you get declared traitors by the Earth Forces?" asked Shinn as he calmed down, looking into Stella's gentle violet eyes.

"Does it really matter Shinn?" asked Auel as he came on the visual COM. "We're gonna do this with you, like it or not." Sting came on visual COM as well and gave a thumb's up which Shinn returned.

Stella smiled and returned to Gaia just as Captain Lee came on the ship intercom system, "We've just entered L5 and are twenty minutes away from the battle site. All units prepare to launch!"

"Yes sir!" acknowledged the Gundam pilots and Commander La Flaga.

L5 PLANTS Colony Region

Roux, Elle, Sai and Puru were already shooting down nuclear missiles that the Earth Forces were firing without locking on to the PLANTS. Many of the missiles were missing their targets while some were being shot down by the Minerva's crew and the AEUG Gundam pilots defending the PLANTS. Puru was enjoying the mission thanks to the mini DRAGOON pods Chairman Durandal provided her Gundam; she was taking out more nuclear missiles than everyone else, even Elle and her partner Sai Argyle combined together as Super Gundam. Roux was being irritated by the sheer number of missiles being fired; it looked like they wouldn't stop until one missile slipped past her and it looked like it was going to hit one of the PLANTS until an energy blast destroyed it. Roux recognized the blast and saw that the ZZ was approaching the battle.

"Juddau?!" asked Roux in surprise.

"Hey, you're in the middle of a battle, right?" Juddau asked cheerfully. "Why not get your focus back on it?"

Roux huffed in annoyance at Juddau's comment; but thought that he was right and returned to shooting down the nuclear missiles after informing him that they were shooting down nuclear missiles and destroying the mobile suits that fired them. Elle and Sai were fiercely shooting down the missiles as two slipped past them when they were intercepted by three familiar mobile suits. Sai saw the mobile suits and didn't recognize them, but Elle recognized them.

"Huh? They're Nemos from the AEUG!"

"The AEUG?" asked Sai in confusion.

"The faction Roux, Puru and I belong to," answered Elle. "It's short for the **A**nti **E**arth **U**nion **G**roup."

"I see," replied Sai.

Puru saw the ZZ and wanted to see Juddau but she focused on eliminating the missiles; it was a first for Puru, thought both Elle and Roux. Puru was now getting aggravated by the missiles until she saw new mobile suits join the battle. They were old Strike Daggers and M1 Astrays bearing an insignia of a resistance group as noted by Captain Gladys. Things seemed to be improving until some of the nuclear missiles looked like they were going find their mark judging by the Nemos and Strike Daggers that sacrificed themselves to keep the PLANTS safe. It was looking grim until ZAFT finally took action unleashing their mobile suits led by Commander Yszak Joule in his Dual Gundam and Commander Dearka Elsman piloting his Buster Gundam again. Captain Gladys and Deputy Captain Trine were equally surprised to see the Dual and Buster thinking that both Gundams had been returned to the Earth Forces at the end of the Bloody Valentine War. Captain Gladys thought maybe both of them went and stole their Gundams back from the Earth Forces during the time of peace before Armory One was attacked. The Earth Forces were surprised that all those mobile suits and ships that had been repelling their "final" campaign of extermination; the PLANTS had been fighting courageously. The nuclear missiles were running out but still streaked towards the PLANTS still giving hope to the Earth Forces that at lest one hourglass colony would get struck down. That wasn't going to happen when the Girty Lue showed up to join the fight.

"Captain we've detected Bogey One entering the PLANTS Colony area," cried the Minerva's radar operator.

Captain Gladys and Deputy Captain Trine were equally surprised to hear that the Girty Lue had joined the battle; but the question was if they were going to fight ZAFT or just hang back and report to their superiors. They were going to discuss whither or not to recall their mobile suits when the radar operator chimed in, "Incoming heat sources, checking thermal patterns. It's the Impulse, Gaia, Chaos, Abyss, a single mobile armor and several Dagger mobile suits."

"Are they coming to attack us?" asked Arthur scratching his head in confusion.

"Let's call back the Zeta, Gundam Mk II and Qubeley Mk II," suggested Meyrin.

"No, we'll keep on going as we are," responded Captain Gladys.

"Are you sure that's a good idea Captain?" asked Arthur.

"We'll just see what they're intentions are," answered Captain Gladys. "**If** they attack, then we'll call back the AEUG Gundams."

"Uh, yes ma'am," acknowledged the bridge crew.

Captain Gladys sat back and watched in amazement as the four stolen Gundams raced onto the scene and started to fire at the nuclear missiles and even the Earth Forces. The Gaia, Chaos and Abyss didn't once fire on the ZAFT forces, neither did the Impulse. Either Shinn got the ship he was on to turn against the Earth Forces or the captain of the ship had a change of heart. Luna and Rey were equally surprised to the Impulse coming back to fight the Earth despite being captured by them. They thought the same thing that Captain Gladys thought. Rey breathed a sigh of relief that Shinn had returned. He had plans for Shinn even if Shinn didn't want to be part of them. The nuclear missiles ran out but the Earth Forces still attacked; but they couldn't withstand the fire from the coalition that had formed together from the onslaught of nuclear weapons. After an hour the entire Earth Forces that had attacked was completely wiped out with no survivors. After things settled down, Shinn began to return to the Girty Lue when Lunamaria, in her Slash ZAKU, approached the Impulse. This made Stella uneasy when Luna approached Shinn and she thought about shooting the Slash ZAKU; but decided against it as she considered that Shinn might want to rejoin the Minerva and shooting one of the pilots belonging to the Minerva wasn't going to help Shinn.

"Hey Shinn," called Mu. "If you want to rejoin with the Minerva, I won't stop you. But I ask that you take Stella with you and protect her like you promised her."

Shinn looked at the Gaia and then Stella on the visual COM, in which Stella gave a curt nod. Shinn returned the curt nod and returned to the Minerva with Stella following him.

"Captain Gladys, Shinn Asuka requesting permission to return to the Minerva," said Shinn over the visual COM. "I, uh… am bringing the Gaia back with me and the pilot. I hope you don't mind if she joins us."

Lunamaria eavesdropped in on the conversation and heard that the pilot of the Gaia was a girl; she felt jealous that Shinn was bringing a girl back from his time in captivity with the Earth Forces. She got ideas in her head that the Gaia's pilot was some really cute girl that seduced Shinn. But right now Luna couldn't think about starting a cat fight with the Gaia's pilot and make things worse for Shinn. She wanted to step in and warn Stella not to try any thing funny; but Captain Gladys would be the one to tell Shinn's girlfriend that. Once all mobile suits had been retrieved, including the Impulse and the Gaia, and parts for the Impulse's Sword Silhouette, Captain Gladys turned the Minerva back towards Earth so they could get Chief Representative Athha and her bodyguard to Orb as soon as possible. Captain Gladys thanked whatever deity or person for the large heat source left behind by the battle. The Earth Forces blockade had many holes in it and the Minerva burst through one hole before the Earth Forces finally saw the hole and closed it. Once the Minerva got through the hole, Captain Gladys set course for Earth hoping that the Earth Forces would be silent and weakened from the last battle. Commander La Flaga and the Girty Lue took an escorting position next to the Minerva as they decided to join forces with the Minerva. Mu intended to carry out his plan to reunite with Murrue Ramius and following the Minerva was the only plan he had. Captain Gladys was surprised that the Girty Lue joined up them. She was going to need his help because the Earth Forces were sending in new weapons for occasions like this.

Earth Alliance ship Neo Dominion, in pursuit of the Minerva and Girty Lue

Captain Alexi Nakamura looked around at her crew. They were sure busy after having to launch earlier than expected after the Girty Lue betrayed Logos and took the three Extended pilots with him. Then there were the three Extended pilots she had under her control. The leader was Michael Ari, an Arab born Extended from Central Eurasia, near the city of Medina. A quiet 18 year-old boy, who enjoyed video games that involved thievery, ninjas or desert princes, he always had his nose in front of a screen playing one of those three types of games. Something about him made seem harmless to the average person, and a lot of the crew on board seemed to think that; but there was more to him than meets the eye. In battle he always specialized in stealth and assassinations when he wasn't piloting a mobile suit. In his special mobile suit, the GAT X-127 Shadow Striker, he applied his stealth and ability to take out ships and mobile suits carefully and crafty. His two teammates were a different story especially Johan Gonzalez. A German-Latino born in Havana, he liked exercising when he wasn't forced to undergo treatments or torture at Lodonia. His favorite sports were baseball and soccer. Unlike his handlers at Lodonia and even Logos, he was rather friendly to Coordinators and loved to compete against them in different sports. He always made sure that the handlers never found out that he had Coordinator friends and even to this day the people at Lodonia still had no clue. Last but not least, was a sweet and child-like girl named Mitsuki Saiko. The youngest of the three Extended pilots aboard the Neo Dominion, Mitsuki was born in ZAFT controlled Carpentaria and the only Natural born in ZAFT controlled territory to be taken into the Lodonia Laboratory. At 14 years Mitsuki had shown that she was a complete book worm that showed she was interested in academics rather than fighting but fought nonetheless using a simple Strike Dagger she personalized herself. Rather than using stolen technology, which she hated, she used combat data on certain mobile suits to customize her mobile suit called G-Killer. This was referring to the Gundams that appeared during the Bloody Valentine War. Another thing that was noted by Captain Nakamura was that Mitsuki hated Gundams, everything about them she hated with a passion. To her Gundams had no place in the world and should all be destroyed. Yes, behind the child-like face was someone who suffered at the hands of Gundam pilots, most referable to Kira Yamato who killed a friend of hers in the North African desert, Aisha, Andrew Waltfeld's girlfriend. Like Johan, she too was friendly with Coordinators and befriended some in secret. Aisha was Mitsuki's closest friend and ever since she was killed by Kira Yamato, she hated Gundams blaming them for the deaths of many people. Even though the Raider, Calamity and Forbidden were mobile suits of the Earth Forces, she still saw them as Gundams that needed to be destroyed and she was thankful that they were destroyed. Mitsuki was one for uniformity and organization; which meant that Gundams were enemies.

Alexi shook her head as she couldn't believe that she would have to chase Neo Roanoke. The only thing she was told was to find and destroy the traitorous ship Girty Lue and slaughter the crew to set an example warning any Naturals who might think ZAFT were good guys that they would be slaughtered in the same fashion as the Girty Lue; but the Minerva was to be captured with all the crew alive. He was going to have every crew member savagely murdered on worldwide TV for all to see. It would set another example to those who thought of resisting the Earth Forces. Alexi's stomach turned sour when she heard the reason for the Minerva's capture; to her Djbril's reason was barbaric and no one committed those cruel acts of barbarity anymore, the Geneva Convention outlawed it. The young captain turned to her bridge crew as they finished their checks; all of them had a look of professionalism and not one of them showed any emotions. After examining her crew twice she sighed and then her radar operator, Susan Ashton noticed something on the radar screen.

"Captain, we've detected two heat sources passing through Sector Black Tango Mark 3 Charlie," reported Susan. "Checking thermal patterns; it's the Minerva and the Girty Lue, distance 1600 km and increasing."

"Damn I never thought Captain Roanoke would betray us like that," snarled Judy Daniels, Communications Officer. "And he had a promising career with Logos; now he's become a low life Coordinator loving fool."

"Hey, that's enough Sergeant Daniels," shot Yuzu Akihara, the Deputy Captain. "We've got a job to do and traitors to catch."

"All hands, Level 2 Battle stations," barked Alexi. "Get Ensigns Ari, Gonzalez and Saiko to suit up and board their mobile suits. Chief Ashton, I want you to calculate their intended course and destination. Everyone else standby for anti-ship and anti-mobile suit combat."

"Yes ma'am!" acknowledged the bridge crew.

Susan calculated the projected course and destination and reported to Captain Nakamura, "It looks like they're heading to Earth. Projected destination, if they don't deviate from their course, is the Orb Union."

"Why are they heading for the Orb Union?" asked Adam Winchell, one of the ship's pilots.

"It doesn't matter," answered William Jacobson, one of the other ship's pilots. "We've gotta get them so the brass can set an example to any wannabe revolutionary trying to oppose our efforts to kill every last space monster and their allies."

"Captain, the Girty Lue and Minerva have decelerated and it looks like they've engaged an enemy," reported Susan.

"Good, we'll move in and destroy them all!" exclaimed William as he clinched his hands into fists pretended to throw punches.

"What's their current position?" asked Alexi.

"Blue Charlie Mark 8 Delta," answered Susan. "Checking thermal patterns of the enemy they're engaging, four Nazca class vessels, six Agamemnon class vessels and they've deployed about thirty CGUEs, fifteen GINNs and hundred sixty seven Mobius mobile armors."

"Damn, that's quite a force to destroy or even capture two ships," remarked Adam.

"No shit," added William.

"Alright you guys watch your mouths," snarled Deputy Captain Akihara. "You know the captain told you guys to refrain from using profanity. If you guys don't have anything useful to say then shut it."

"Yes ma'am," moaned Adam and William.

"Ensigns Jacobson and Hikowa, plot a course for Blue Charlie Mark 8 Delta," ordered Alexi. "All hands prepare for anti-ship and anti-mobile suit combat; engines to maximum, full combat speed, when we reach the target point we'll deploy the Shadow Striker, G-Killer and Dual Dagger."

"Yes ma'am!" acknowledged the bridge crew.

Everyone then got to their tasks and the Neo Dominion shifted course towards Blue Charlie Mark 8 Delta.

L1 Region, Coordinates: Blue Charlie Mark 8 Delta

"Damn it what's with these guys?!" snarled Shinn as he shot another Mobius mobile armor. "What did we do to get attacked?"

"Does it really matter why we got attacked?" asked Auel as he blasted a group of two CGUEs, a GINN and a Mobius mobile armor. "All the more for us to shoot down. Hey Sting, Mu how are you guys doing?"

"Now I know how those guys from ZAFT felt when they were dealing with the mobile armors," commented Mu as he unleashed a blistering stream of fire from the weapon pods of his Exxus mobile armor.

"Yeah these mobile armors are outdated," added Sting. "Not to mention these ZAFT mobile suits are really pissing me off."

"Well then we should target the ships and maybe they'll retreat," suggested Rey.

"I doubt it," said Shinn.

"We should try to break through them and get away," suggested Stella.

"It's not gonna do any good," sassed Luna, "they'll just keep coming at us. Whatcha have in mind; run away while they shoot us down?"

"That's enough Luna," interrupted Shinn. "What's your problem? You sound like you're jealous."

"I-I'm not jealous," stammered Luna. "I-I… no I'm not jealous!"

"Um, okay you don't need to get flustered," replied Shinn as he turned back toward the task at hand.

Luna looked at Shinn and returned to fighting the CGUEs that were trying to surround her. Taking her thermal tomahawk, Luna sliced through one CGUE and shot the other one in the chest. Sting made use of his weapon pods and simultaneously shot four Mobius mobile armors and a GINN. He made his way towards Luna to give her backup. Auel was thrilled with the destruction of many mobile suits and weakling mobile armors as he always made point to claim the head of an enemy mobile suit as a trophy. The Minerva had finally managed to create a hole for both ships to escape before the battle attracted the attention of the Earth Forces. Captain Gladys signaled all mobile suits to return to their carriers and begin to punch through the hole before it closed up. Both ZAKUs, Impulse, and the Gaia returned to the Minerva. The Chaos went to the Minerva by mistake; but there was no time to get Sting back to the Girty Lue, so Captain Gladys had to take in Sting and get through the hole quickly. The Abyss, Exxus and the various Dagger mobile suits returned to the Girty Lue and the ship followed the Minerva through the hole while there was disarray between the pirates trying to capture both ships for their own. Captain Gladys signaled the Girty Lue that it would be another hour before they got to a position for reentry. Mu and Captain Lee acknowledged Captain Gladys' communication and made sure they had the necessary preparations for reentry. By the time the pirates realized that the Minerva and Girty Lue had escaped it was too late for them as an Earth Forces ship appeared on the scene.

Earth Forces Archangel class ship, Neo-Dominion

L1 Region, Coordinates, Blue Charlie Mark 8 Delta

Captain Nakamura watched as flashes of light continued flare between two sides instead of three sides. This puzzled Alexi as she turned to her radar operator, Susan Ashton.

"I'm sorry Captain, but it looks as if the Minerva and Girty Lue have left the area," reported Susan.

"Where are they now?" asked Alexi.

"Orange Tango Mark 2 Zebra," answered Susan. "Distance 1800 and increasing."

"Damn they're getting away," snarled William. "We've got to get them before they begin reentry."

"Not to mention we won't be able slaughter them once they get to Orb," added Adam as he made a fist.

"Will you two shut the hell up?!" roared Deputy Captain Akihara. "If you want blood, **GO DRINK YOUR OWN!** Damn, you two really piss me off."

William and Adam gave Deputy Captain Akihara an evil eye; oh, they wanted blood, hers and any traitors who defied the will of Logos, the real rulers of Earth. At lest they thought Logos should be the rulers of Earth and they would carry out their will of terror no matter how people were slaughtered. Djbril even gave them special authority to override the captain if she stepped out of line. Djbril remembered that Azrael had problems controlling his puppet, Captain Natralie Badgeral, and she even was the cause of his death even though she perished with him on the Dominion. He was not going to make that mistake; he would make sure that Captain Nakamura followed his every order to the letter.

Captain Alexi sighed and gave orders, "We're ignoring the battle; set course for Coordinates Orange Tango Mark 2 Zebra, all hands to Level 2 Battle Stations, ready Gottfrieds One and Two, load Tubes 1 through 6 with Sledgehammers, load Tubes 7 through 12 with Korinthos, ready Valiants, ready all mobile suits in case the pirates decide to attack us."

"Yes ma'am!" acknowledged the bridge crew.

L1 Region, Coordinates: Orange Tango Mark 2 Zebra

The Minerva and Girty Lue made their way to low Earth orbit and made preparations for reentry into Earth's atmosphere. The Girty Lue began releasing its Ablative Gel on its undercarriage; while the Minerva already began its descent. While they descended through the atmosphere, the Neo-Dominion entered the area.

"Hey there are the traitors!" exclaimed William. "Quick, fire the Gottfrieds! Shoot them while they can't fight back!"

"Yeah, what are we waiting for?" Adam asked with enthusiasm. "Once they're dead, we'll have one more threat to eliminate and we can finally eradicate all those filthy space monsters and any more traitors."

Deputy Captain Akihara had had enough with William and Adam; she knew that they were both working for Logos and in her personal opinion, she felt Logos needed to be destroyed before ZAFT got beat into submission. She pulled out her pistol and aimed it both ship pilots as roared, "I've had enough of you two lowlife, bloodthirsty bastards. I told you two guys twice now and I'll say one last time. **SHUT THE HELL UP**!"

William and Adam drooped their shoulders and watched as the Minerva and Girty Lue completed their descent through the Thermosphere and disappearing into the Ozone Layer. Again Deputy Captain Akihara was a nuisance to the efforts of Logos. They would recommend to Lord Djbril that Deputy Captain Akihara would be "transferred" and dealt with once they got back to Lunar Headquarters. However, Deputy Captain Akihara had considerable influence because her father was major minister in the Atlantic Federation and even Logos knew not to incur the wrath of a popular minster. William and Adam got furious that Lord Djbril couldn't do a thing to Deputy Captain Akihara. Once they got back to Lunar Headquarters, they'd take matters into their own hands and deal with their threat.

Morgenroete Dry Docks, Onogoro Island, Orb Union

Mu took a breath and let out a sigh of relief that they successfully made it to Orb before the Neo Dominion got them. But something didn't feel right to him; normally when members of Logos betrayed the organization they were executed when they were found and it was a quick one. But the captain of the Earth Forces ship didn't fire a shot at them while they reentered the atmosphere. Any captain in the Logos organization would shoot


	3. Chapter 3

This chapter has Shinn and Stella mixed up in an assassination attempt on Lacus. Please leave comments to improve the story.

Chapter 3: The Attempted Assassination of the Songstress

Morgenroete Dry Docks Facility

Onogoro Island, Orb Union

Something bothered Mu, the Earth Forces ship didn't fire on them while they reentered the atmosphere. 'The captain of that Earth Forces ship was a member of Logos weren't they,' wondered Mu. 'A lot of the captains of Earth Forces ships belong to Logos; but this captain doesn't seem to be a member of Logos like most of them.'

As he pondered his thoughts one of dock workers approached him. The worker hid her identity mostly because Logos was pursuing any traitors from the Bloody Valentine War, mostly the crew of the Archangel and their Coordinator hero Kira Yamato. The captain of the Archangel, Murrue Ramius went by the alias Maria Bernes to protect her own identity Even Cagalli knew about her identity and even authorized it, even Athrun's secret identity, Alex Dino. Back to Mu, Maria head him a summary of the repairs that were made to the Girty Lue. Not many repairs were needed but Maria still needed to give him the report. As she walked up to him she recognized him as her lover she thought had died at Yakin Du Wei. Maria pretended not recognize him while trying to keep a straight face but it was hard for her to keep it until she saw Captain Gladys and turned her attention to her instead in order to avoid Mu for awhile hoping that he would go away. Maria spoke with Captain Gladys about the some damage they took during the battle with the pirates in the L1 Region. She remarked that the workers had replaced a cannon and replace damaged armor sections. Mu took a look at Maria and recognized her as Murrue Ramius as he decided to approach her.

"Excuse me but I was wondering if you could take a look at ship," suggested Mu.

Maria tried to avoid Mu until he put his hand on her and she had to turn see his face. Her face went white as she couldn't believe that Mu had survived the blast from the Dominion's Positronic Cannon. Mu looked at Maria's face puzzled. Captain Gladys was confused by what was transpiring.

"What's wrong Murrue?" asked Mu. "You look like you've seen a ghost. You don't remember me?"

Captain Gladys looked at Maria in shock; she was in the presence of the Archangel's captain who defected with her crew from the Earth Forces and fought against them at Orb and at Yakin Du Wei as well as ZAFT. To many in ZAFT, Murrue Ramius was famous as the captain ZAFT couldn't shoot down or capture. Captain Gladys just leaned back and watched the conversation.

"But… but how did you survive?" stammered Maria… I mean Murrue. "I saw the blast from the…"

"Yeah I know," Mu said calmly. "I really don't know how I survived. I remember being in a hospital at a lunar facility covered in bandages from burns I suffered."

Mu continued his story about his memory was erased in a capsule, was given a new name and mask to cover his face, the face of a traitor according to Djbril. Captain Gladys was disgusted with the Earth Forces as she heard Mu say that Djbril covered his face with a mask and erased his memory. It reminded her of what Shinn told her after returning from the Girty Lue when he was captured. Shinn had said that the three Extended pilots underwent hypnosis along with drugs and various forms of torture. She even talked with Stella and Sting about what they went through; unfortunately both of them didn't remember what happened, but Sting remembered the place they were at before joining Phantom Pain. Shinn even included that the Extended pilots become emotionally unstable if someone mentioned a certain block word or phrase. Apparently, Stella's block word was anything about death; you wouldn't be able to mention anything about death without Stella coming undone and going on a rampage just to protect herself. Auel's block word was anything about his mother, who worked at the Lodonia laboratory. Shinn didn't know Sting's block word because neither Stella or Auel knew his block word. Captain Gladys interrupted Mu's conversation with Murrue and then returned to the Minerva.

While Mu and Murrue were catching up with each other, Shinn was taking care of doing maintenance on the Impulse while Stella slept in Shinn's bed after doing maintenance on the Gaia. Captain Gladys was uneasy about Shinn and Stella sharing a bed together. But Shinn promised that nothing was going to happen until the superiors could sort out what would happen to Sting and Stella since both of them wanted to join up with ZAFT after helping to save millions of lives during the Break the World Incident and defending the PLANTS from the bloodthirsty Naturals of the Earth Alliance.

'Gilbert will be pleased that the Chaos and Gaia are back the hands of ZAFT,' thought Captain Gladys. 'But I wonder what's going to happen to the three young pilots who stole our prototype Gundams from us.

'If that's not enough for me to worry about, Lunamaria and Shinn are both in a relationship with two of the three pilots who stole Gaia, Chaos and the Abyss. This is making my job harder to handle.'

While Captain Gladys was lost in her thoughts, Arthur came in noticed Captain Gladys in a daze.

"Uh Captain, we got word from the Orb government that they'll allow the crew to go ashore if that's all right with you," reported Arthur before waving his hand in Captain Gladys's face. "Captain, are you alright?"

Captain Gladys snapped out of her daze and looked at Arthur.

"Um, what did you say, Arthur?" asked Captain Gladys.

"We got word from the Orb government that the crew can go ashore as thanks for escorting the Chief Representative all the way here," answered Arthur. "Uh, is something wrong Captain?"

Captain Gladys rubbed her temples and answered, "I've got a lot of things to worry about."

Arthur looked at Captain Gladys in confusion before pondering what she was trying to say. He thought about Shinn and Lunamaria's relationship with both Extended pilots on board the Minerva. Lunamaria started dating Sting after finding out he was a likable and charming guy to be around. Of course, everyone knew that Shinn was dating Stella ever since he returned from the Girty Lue with her. Yolant and Vino dropped their jaws when they saw how hot Stella looked. Stella told Shinn that she thought she heard Yolant and Vino talking about pulling a few wires out of the Core Splendor, which both of them denied. Captain Gladys looked at Arthur and he acknowledged the dilemma she was in.

"Do you have a plan to deal with the problem?" asked Arthur.

Captain Gladys definitely had a plan to deal with both of her mobile suit pilots having a relationship.

"I'll leave them alone as long as they know how to separate their love life from their professional life as soldiers," said Captain Gladys.

Arthur looked at Captain Gladys dumbfounded as he wondered why Captain Gladys was letting Shinn and Lunamaria keep dating. But he couldn't do a thing about it; he trusted the captain and would respect her decision.

"Inform the crew and our guests that shore leave is granted to them," instructed Captain Gladys.

"Yes ma'am," acknowledged Arthur. "Uh Captain, are you going to inform headquarters about the two pilots?"

"Yes I am," answered Captain Gladys before turning to Arthur. "Where are those two pilots?"

"Stella is in Shinn and Rey's room sleeping after performing maintenance on the Gaia," answered Arthur. "Sting is with Lunamaria at the shooting range practicing with firearms."

Captain Gladys rolled her eyes at Arthur's response to Lunamaria and Sting's location; she figured no one was there and practicing was just an excuse to hide and make out with each other when no one was around the firing range. Arthur nodded in agreement at Captain Gladys's eye rolling, he probably figured they were hiding and making out too. He thought about calling in Lunamaria and Sting but Captain Gladys beat him to it. Lunamaria and Sting came in together not holding hands or having their uniform messed up. Arthur wanted to snap his fingers in disappointment, but held back.

"So what were you two doing?" asked Captain Gladys.

"Sting was showing me how shoot better at the shooting range," answered Lunamaria.

"Why, did you think we were hiding and making out?" chimed in Sting.

Captain Gladys turned away from the couple in embarrassment and Lunamaria shook her head in disbelief. Both she and Sting knew better than to hide and make out with each other. Captain Gladys dismissed them after asking them to inform the rest of the crew that shore leave was approved. Lunamaria and Sting ran to tell the crew about their shore leave. It would be the first time that the crew had shore leave since the ship launched at Armory One.

Most of the Minerva's crew took the chance to disembark from the ship, most of them except Shinn. Orb was a place of pain to him. He lost his family when the Earth Alliance attacked Orb for a half assed accusation that Orb had supported ZAFT in their attacks against Alaska and Panama. Now that Cagalli was back in Orb she could get things moving again also make sure that the Minerva got repaired and sent them on their way. Cagalli had asked Roux if she wanted to hang out with her after she was through with a cabinet meeting with the ministers and Roux agreed. Shinn rubbed his face after Roux slapped him for making accusations that Cagalli's father, Lord Uzumi Nara Athha, had killed his family and disregarded their safety. He still felt the pain from Roux's slap every time he wanted to be angry at Cagalli and blame her for his family's death; it left a stinging sensation since he also felt Roux's fingernails scrape his left cheek. He thought about at least visiting the site where he lost his family and gave in. After finishing maintenance on the Impulse he went to his room and gently woke Stella from her sleep and asked her if she wanted to go with him ashore, in which she agreed to do. After both of them showered and changed clothes, they left the ship and headed towards the memorial site where his family had passed away. After getting there, Shinn noticed someone at a smaller site. He approached the person with Stella silently following him and person noticed him walking towards the site.

"Is it a memorial?" asked Shinn.

"It looks that way," answered the person, Kira Yamato, as he looked back at the small site. "But the flowers will wither and die any way."

Shinn was a little nervous when he mentioned the word "die" and looked behind him and saw that Stella was gazing at the ocean, wanting to put her feet in the ocean water.

"I'm sorry," said Kira, "Did I say something to bother you?"

"No," answered Shinn, "my girlfriend doesn't like hearing anything about death or dying."

Kira gave a nod of understanding and turned as Lacus and Haro approached with more flowers for the small site; Lacus was singing as she approached Kira and Shinn.

"Oh my, I see you made a couple of friends," said Lacus before she set the flowers down and noticed Stella coming back to Shinn's side.

"Shinn, do you know these two?" Stella asked nervously.

"I'm sorry, we forgot to introduce ourselves," said Kira. "My name is Kira Yamato and this Lacus Clyne."

Shinn's eyes widened when Kira introduced Lacus to him; he heard about Lacus Clyne when he was in the academy back in the PLANTS; but he heard after Yakin Do Wei, she disappeared and couldn't be found anywhere. Shinn snapped out of his daze and introduced himself and Stella as well.

"My name's Shinn," introduced Shinn, "Shinn Asuka, and this is my girlfriend Stella Loussier." Stella gave a nervous nod when Shinn introduced her to Kira and Lacus. Lacus turned to Kira in which he slightly on nodded to her .

"How would you two like join us for dinner tonight?" asked Lacus. "It would be nice to have guests over."

"What do you want to do?" Shinn asked Stella.

"Let's go," answered Stella. "Besides I can't remember the last time I ate real food since I was in the Earth Forces." Shinn grunted when Stella mentioned the Earth Forces; it made him upset if anybody mentioned those monsters. Stella saw Shinn's reaction and turned her face away in embarrassment; she had forgotten since the Earth Forces' attempted attack to nuke the PLANTS that he never wanted to hear that name again.

Shinn and Stella enjoyed themselves with Kira, Lacus and the children who sat with them. Stella noticed that there were about ten children who gathered around Lacus.

"What happened to the children that they have to live with you guys?" Stella asked Lacus.

"Kira and I help Reverend Malcho care for these children who have lost their homes and families to the Bloody Valentine War," answered Lacus. "You see our home was washed away by a tidal wave that struck the island we were living on and we had to relocate here."

"They seem happy with you," observed Stella.

"Yes, yes indeed they are happy," replied Lacus as she smiled and turned to the children.

As Stella was talking with Lacus, she didn't notice that Shinn had went to a different room. Shinn had noticed pictures on a wall in Kira's bedroom. They were all group photos of Kira and a group other people around him. The first picture he saw was of Kira, four of his closest friends and Earth Forces officers after docking at Artemis. Shinn became disgusted when he saw those uniforms belonging to the Earth Forces but remembered that Stella and Sting wore their Earth Forces uniforms on board the Minerva and couldn't say anything about it. The next picture had another person next to them, pretty girl with red hair, violet eyes and of course an Earth Forces uniform as well. Shinn went from being disgusted to interested as he saw the pictures seemed to tell him a story of what happened. The next had two more people in the photo, one of which he recognized as Cagalli Yula Athha, but she wore what looked like gear guerillas fought with and she was in the desert too. Again he wanted to become angry at Cagalli but pain flared up on his left cheek from Roux's slap and unintentional scratch. The next picture showed three people were missing, two of Kira's friends and the officer with short black hair and always had her uniform neat and organized were missing. But looking at the picture he noticed two familiar faces, the traitor Athrun Zala and Commander Dearka Elsman; they were two of ZAFT's finest pilots and he wondered what the hell they were doing with Kira and his friends and crewmates. Another picture he saw showed Commander Elsman with another girl, brown hair, beautiful blue eyes and she wore an Earth Forces uniform. Shinn wondered why Commander Elsman was with an Earth Forces soldier. As Shinn studied the pictures, Kira walked in and noticed Shinn was looking at the photos he had on the wall.

"I see you found my wall of photos," Kira said getting Shinn out of his daze.

Shinn snapped out of his daze turning to Kira and asked, "Why the Earth Forces? Why did you fight with the Earth Forces?!"

"I had friends I had to protect when Heliopolis was attacked," answered Kira.

Shinn looked interested when Kira mentioned protecting his friends; he let Kira continue.

"My friends were trying to get to safety and I happened to be in the Factory District where there were five Gundams being developed for the Earth Forces," explained Kira. "After retrieving the Strike and constantly fighting off ZAFT's relentless attacks we came down to Earth and…"

"And yet you had fight off ZAFT's ground forces too," finished Shinn. "Right?"

Kira nodded in agreement and continued, "We met a group of resistance fighters called Desert Dawn and that's when I met Cagalli again."

Shinn raised an eyebrow in confusion as he asked, "What do you mean 'again?'"

"I met her at Heliopolis and had send her down into a shelter," answered Kira.

He went on talking about how he and crew of the Archangel found out as they entered Orb territory that they had the daughter Uzumi Nara Athha on board with him. Everyone was quite surprised to hear that and watched as Cagalli tried to stop her guardian from changing her clothes and taking her off the ship. Shinn gave a little grin and listened to more of Kira's story. Kira continued his story about when the Le Creuset team led by Athrun ambushed them when they left Orb territory and the unfortunate events that led to him and Athrun fighting each other and trying to kill one another. Kira had killed one of Athrun's friends and Athrun killed one of his friends. After the dust settled, Kira woke a couple days later and found that he was at the PLANTS instead of being dead like he thought he was. Lacus and Reverend Malcho nursed him back to health and after hearing that ZAFT was attacking Alaska he left the PLANTS and returned to Earth to protect his friends again like he did with the Strike. Shinn sat down on Kira's bed continued to listen; he found Kira's story to very interesting and even began to wonder what he would do if he was in Kira's position. Kira finished up by talking about the battle with the Earth Forces at Onogoro Island and the final battle at Yakin Do Wei. He mentioned that Flay Alster, Captain Natarile Badgeral and Commander Mu La Flaga had perished in the battle.

"What are you talking about?" asked Shinn, after Kira mentioned Mu's death. "He's still alive; I met myself when I got captured by the Alliance."

Shinn explained how he got captured by the Alliance and fell in love with Stella when he was on board the Girty Lue. Shinn told Kira that originally Mu had his memories erased by the monsters from Logos. It seemed that once he was on board the Girty Lue, Mu's memories started to return slowly and eventually returned before the Earth Forces went on a rampage to nuke the PLANTS. Mu decided to fight the Earth Forces again as payback for erasing his memories and he wanted to reunite with his lover. Shin wanted to sarcastically stress the word lover but held back since he himself fell in love with Stella. Shinn bitterly recounted that he lost his family during the battle at Onogoro Island and was angry about it. Kira could definitely feel Shinn's pain since he lost friends in battle.

"For what it's worth I'm sorry about your family," apologized Kira. "As a fellow mobile suit pilot."

Shinn was confused about Kira's apology; for all Shinn knew Kira was also victim who lost people who were close to him.

"Well all I can remember was seeing a white mobile suit and a blue green mobile suit exchange fire causing the hill to collapse," said Shinn as recalled the battle that claimed the lives of his family.

"Yeah, that was the Freedom and the Calamity," recalled Kira.

Shinn's eyes widened when Kira mentioned the two mobile suits. He demanded to know how Kira knew the two mobile suits that possibility killed his family.

"I was the pilot of the Freedom," answered Kira before looking down and then back at Shinn. "I fired a shot that deflected with the Calamity and caused a hill to collapse. I could feel the vibrations during the fight."

Shinn was speechless after Kira described the exact scene that happened when his family was killed. He then became angry and began to think about killing Kira but held back and calmed down after Kira asked to say one last thing.

"Do you think that killing anybody will bring back your family?" asked Kira.

"Well… no but I think those who are responsible should face Justice for what they did," answered Shinn as he stammered.

"So what you're telling me you expected Lord Uzumi to be there exactly and protect your family," summarized Kira.

"I didn't say that!" snapped Shinn.

"What are you trying say?" asked Kira. "You can't hold soldiers responsible for the death of your family. Although I do believe that soldiers should protect those they can protect right there and ensure that others live on for a better tomorrow. As for Lord Uzumi, I know that he had every intention to protect the civilians who weren't fighting."

Shinn's angry face drained quickly and he began to ponder what Kira said to him. 'Ensure that others live on for a better tomorrow,' thought Shinn. It sounded appealing to him and it even might be something for him to fight for, this better tomorrow for other people. Shinn gave a nod to Kira and said, "I can do that, ensure a better tomorrow for others look forward to."

Kira returned the nod and than noticed the clock said nine o'clock.

"If you and your girlfriend would like to stay here for the night you can if Miss Murrue and Mr. Waltfeld say it's okay," offered Kira.

Shinn's eyes widened a little when Kira mentioned Andrew Waltfeld, the Desert Tiger; he had heard how at first he fought with against the Archangel and then joined the Clyne Faction and the Three Ships Alliance.

"I need to talk to Stella first and let Captain Gladys know where I'm at," said Shinn as he began to leave Kira's room went to find Stella. He found her with Lacus and the kids on the beach playing and having a good time. The children took a liking to Stella and found that she was rather friendly like Lacus and as gentle as a lamb. Shinn approached Stella and the children noticed and gathered around him. Stella giggled a little bit and approached him as well. Shinn whispered to Stella that Kira had offered to let them stay with them. She whispered back that she wanted to stay with them even if it was just overnight. Shinn contacted the Minerva and apologized for not reporting in and asked if he and Stella could stay with Kira and Lacus; the captain gave her approval and told him to call the ship if they got into any trouble.

Lacus gave the children ten more minutes to play with Stella and Shinn before they had to get ready for bed. Most of the children were tired anyway and got ready for bed pushing those who weren't tired to the bedroom and they all got ready for bed. Stella breathed a sigh of relief; the children wore her out and she hadn't gotten to spend time alone with Shinn. She helped Lacus tuck the children into bed and then found Shinn looking at the sea. Shinn turned and motioned Stella to join him on the patio, in which she went to his side.

"I think that Kira's right," said Shinn.

This caught Stella's attention and she asked, "What do you mean; what's Kira right about?"

"I can't continue to blame the Athha's for losing my parents," Shinn said carefully choosing his words. Stella knew he wanted to say death but couldn't because she'd go undone if he said it. "He also said that soldiers should protect people and ensure that they have a better tomorrow to look forward to."

Stella gently wrapped her arms around Shinn's waist as she repeated Shinn's words about a better tomorrow.

After thirty minutes of gazing at the ocean, both Shinn and Stella fell asleep on a foldout bed in the living room. Neither Shinn nor Stella had any idea that they would be caught in a crossfire and from Shinn's own comrades.

Three hours had passed since a group ZAFT Special Forces made preparations for their mission. They were paid a generous amount of money by Chairman Durandal for this assignment and they had complete it without a hitch. They silently approached the compound hoping the mission would be easy.

"There's a problem," Haro, Lacus' robot friend, warned after detecting movement on his sensors. Haro repeated this loud enough that it woke Andrew Waltfeld from his sleep. He quickly woke Murrue and Mu from their sleep. He quickly made his way to the living room; but he stayed low on the ground in case there was a sniper waiting.

"Hey wake up kid," Andrew said quiet enough for Shinn to hear. "We've got uninvited guests. Get your clothes on and wake your girlfriend."

Shinn complied and gently shook Stella awake. Both Shinn and Stella were still sleepy but did what Andrew said. He turned to Shinn and asked, "Can you shoot a gun?"

"Yes I can," answered Shinn as he took a gun Andrew offered him.

"I can too," spoke up Stella.

"Unfortunately I didn't grab an extra gun for you," said Andrew apologically. "Make sure you both crawl until you get to the hallway and meet up with Lacus."

Shinn and Stella gave a nod acknowledging Andrew's instructions and made their way to the hallway following Andrew. Andrew hurried up and woke up Kira giving a gun he retrieved for Kira and remembered to get another one for Stella. When he met up with Shinn and Stella, he gave Stella the other gun and they made their way to Lacus and the children. Shinn remembered he had an emergency beacon necklace around his neck. He pulled it out and broke it in half sending an emergency signal.

An officer on the Minerva was sleeping at his post before the emergency signal reached him and woke him up. He quickly looked to see who broke their beacon necklace and noticed that the signal came from Shinn's necklace. He quickly reported this to the captain and Captain Gladys dispatched Roux in her Zeta Gundam to investigate.

While Roux made her towards the house, Shinn managed to shoot a soldier and picked up an ID card; what he found out about them shocked him. They were ZAFT Special Forces, he and Stella were caught in the middle of a mission they were carrying out and it seemed they were targeting Lacus. Right now he had to protect Lacus even if they were ZAFT. 'After all Lacus and Kira were kind enough to let me and Stella stay with them for the night,' thought Shinn. He would definitely report this to Captain Gladys when they got back to the Minerva. The entire group made their way to the last secured layer of defense while the assassins were shelling the shelter

"Lacus, I need the keys," requested Kira. Lacus was hesitant at first but complied and gave him both keys. He and Andrew unlocked the secret armory, in which the Freedom was repaired and hid. Shinn and Stella were surprised to see the Freedom in front of them. It was an honor to see the Freedom up close and personal, at least for Shinn. The sight of a legendary Gundam felt too much too take in for him and he backed away and tripped backwards. Stella helped Shinn off the ground and one of the children giggled when Shinn tripped backwards. Shinn looked at the child at laughed too at least to humor him. The group felt the ground rumble when the Freedom launched.

"Hey Mr. Waltfeld do you have a spare mobile suit?" Shinn asked Andrew.

"Sorry," answered Andrew. "All we have is the Freedom."

Shinn grimaced when Andrew said they only had the Freedom. He did what he could do; he went outside and watched the Freedom battle ZAFT mobile suits he recognized as prototype ASH mobile suits. They were designed for ZAFT Special Forces and they were trouble for anybody facing them. He wished he had the Impulse so he could help Kira fight off those heartless bastards who attacked defenseless women and children.

Roux saw flashes of red and orange indicating she was heading in the right direction. She sped towards the battle.

The ASH mobile suits were definitely trouble for Kira as one engaged him the others would take a shot at him and then continue to shell the shelter. They continued this until one of the mobile suits was hit in the leg by a mobile armor approaching them. Kira noticed the mobile as did the others.

"Dammit!" snarled one of the enemy soldiers. "How did Orb find out we were here?"

"It doesn't matter," answered the commander. "We'll shoot it down before they call in reinforcements."

They then turned their attention to the Freedom and the approaching Zeta Gundam forgetting about Lacus. Roux came in at the nick of time and transformed the Zeta into it's mobile suit form. They were stunned to see it transform and activate its Phase Shift armor. The Zeta Gundam pulled out a beam saber sliced off the left arm.

"Hey, you all right?" Roux asked Kira on visual COM.

"Yeah, thanks," answered Kira. "Who are you?"

"The name's Roux Louka," answered Roux. "and this Zeta Gundam. I'm with the AEUG, short for the **A**nti-**E**arth **U**nion **G**roup."

"Can't say I've heard of the AEUG," replied Kira as he shot an ASH on all four limbs leaving it immobilized. "By the way my name's Kira Yamato and this mobile suit is the Freedom."

"Let's wait until these guys are caught," said Roux.

"All right," agreed Kira as he returned his attention to disabling the ASH mobile suits.

After disabling the last ASH, Roux breathed a sigh of relief that all the ASH mobile suits were taken down. But the soon to be prisoners activated their self-destruct buttons and died without telling who hired them. Kira would have to start from scratch now that his only lead had self-destructed themselves to prevent capture. But the assassins weren't his only problem; now he and Lacus were homeless again and their guests had gotten involved in a crossfire they shouldn't have gotten involved in. Shinn looked around and saw the children were disappointed that they were put out of another home but there was nothing he nor Stella could do for them. Kira assured Shinn that they had a backup plan for the children and both of his mothers. He and Mu La Flaga found his biological mother frozen in cryostorage in a research facility in the L4 Mendel Colony. His adoptive mother was in Orb after ZAFT's attack on Heliopolis and left the country while the Earth Forces came in and forcefully occupied it, proclaiming an autonomous region. The next morning came and a limo drove up to the ruins of Murrue and Andrew's house. The person who came out was Cagalli's guardian, Myrna, and she came with a letter. Kira was shocked to see that Cagalli was asking him to kidnap her from an arranged wedding and the possibility of being forced to sign a treaty with the Earth Alliance which the Seirans were pushing her to do. Myrna began to tell them what she heard from Cagalli.

_Flashback, Yesterday: Orb Cabinet Meeting_

"What, why should we sign a treaty with the Earth Alliance?" demanded Cagalli.

"We have to choose the correct path," answered Yuna Roma Seiran. "We can't let Orb burn again like in the last war."

Cagalli was getting frustrated at the ministers and losing her cool. Roux, her friend, was listening to this pointless discussion about making an alliance with the Earth Forces. 'You'd think these idiots would've insisted that they sided with ZAFT,' thought Roux as she rolled her eyes. 'I mean the Earth Forces tried to nuke the PLANTS and these morons still want to side them.' Cagalli began to argue that the Earth Forces tried use nuclear weapons and challenged their position on being pals with the Earth Alliance. The Seirans just shrugged and said that it was possible terrorists hijacked nuclear weapons and commenced the attack on their own. Roux huffed in annoyance loud enough for everyone to hear her.

"You got something to say?" Yuna asked sarcastically.

"Plenty," answered Roux as she stood up and started to get in Yuna's face. "First of all I know that there weren't terrorists trying to nuke the PLANTS. Second of all, why would soldiers shout before firing a nuke, 'For the preservation of our blue and pure world.'? Third, it seems that you're trying to control Cagalli just ensure your position or take control of the country for yourself."

Cagalli's eye widened when Roux accused Yuna and Unato of trying to control her. Her eyes became lit with fire and she got in Yuna's face causing him to back up in fear. If having Roux in his face wasn't enough, trying having Cagalli in his face along with Roux.

"If want an alliance with the Earth Forces," roared Cagalli, "then the only way it'll happen is over my dead body and that's final."

Unato looked at Cagalli calmly and asked in a vain attempt to regain control over her, "So you'd rather sit back and watch as Orb burns again like in the last war?"

The ministers then looked at Cagalli to see what kind of answer she'd give. Cagalli regain her composure and answered, "No; I shouldn't have to remind you guys of the crimes that the Earth Forces committed during the last war just to obtain victory or new technology" She referred to the traitor, Rau Le Creuset, who sold out ZAFT to help the Earth Forces win and also various other crimes that Blue Cosmos committed.

"If you'll excuse me I made a promise and I intend to keep it," finished Cagalli as she motioned for Roux to follow her.

"So you'd rather hang with Coordinators rather your own kind," assumed Yuna trying to regain his courage as he directed his insult toward Roux.

"My friend, Roux, isn't a Coordinator," shot back Cagalli. "She's a Newtype."

"Eh? A Newtype, what's a Newtype?" asked a dumbfounded Yuna.

"I'm not telling you," answered Roux as she began to leave the conference room and gave Yuna the finger. "Besides there's a lot of explaining I'd have to do and that peanut sized brain of yours wouldn't understand it all." Several of the ministers giggled at Roux's comment about Yuna having a peanut sized brain before Yuna shot them a dirty look.

Present day

Kira was disturbed by Cagalli's request to kidnap her from her scheduled wedding which was tomorrow. Cagalli assured him that she didn't plan on abandoning her relationship with Athrun and gave him and the crew of the Archangel a set of instructions to carry out as quickly as possible. Shinn read the letter over Kira's shoulder and noticed that there was a warning that had to be given to the Minerva and that the Minerva had to leave quickly before the treaty got signed otherwise they'd be trapped and become prisoners of war. Kira turned to Myrna and asked her to take Shinn and Stella back to the Morgenroete Docks so they could warn their captain and leave quickly.

"Hey Kira," Shinn called to Kira as he and Stella got in the limo, "are you guys going to join us at Carpentaria?"

Kira looked at Murrue, Andrew and Mu and they gave him a nod of approval. After Kira got a nod of approval from the three senior officers he turned to Shinn and answered, "We'll join you later; but not at Carpentaria."

"We should probably get the ball rolling now," suggested Mu. "At least we should make sure that the Minerva makes it safely to the border and also make sure they don't get ambushed."

Shinn gave Kira and Mu a nod of acknowledgement got in the limo. The limo drove off to the Morgenroete Docks without a hitch.

Trans-atmospheric battleship, Minerva

Morgenroete Docks, Onogoro Island

After the limo drove off Shinn grabbed Stella's hand they ran into the ship and went straight to Captain Gladys. They saluted and had to catch their breath before making a report. Captain Gladys and Deputy Captain Trine returned the salute and looked puzzled at their appearance. They noticed that Shinn and Stella were dirty, had the smell of gun shot residue on their clothes and they were out of breath.

"Do I need to ask where you two have been?" Arthur asked sarcastically.

Captain Gladys slapped Arthur upside the head and calmly asked, "What happened to you two?"

After they caught their breath and stood up, Shinn began their report.

"We were attacked by an assassination squad from the ZAFT Special Forces," began Shinn.

"They were after one of our kind hosts," chimed in Stella. "A girl named Lacus Clyne."

Captain Gladys and Arthur were shocked to hear they met Lacus Clyne here in Orb. Like Shinn, they heard that Lacus disappeared after Chairwoman Ilene Kinaver cleared her of the treason charges that she and her father had been accused of during Patrick Zala's rule. It was a surprise to hear that Lacus was living in Orb after the war.

"Do you know why ZAFT Special Forces were after Miss Clyne?" asked Captain Gladys.

Shinn and Stella both shook their heads and Shinn added, "The Freedom was also based here in Orb as well as the Archangel. Andrew Waltfeld is here too." Captain Gladys couldn't believe what she was hearing; Lacus targeted by ZAFT Special Forces for an unknown reason; Andrew Waltfeld was living in Orb instead of returning to ZAFT; and last but not least, the Freedom and Archangel were here in Orb as well. Captain Gladys wondered what to do now that the Archangel and legendary Freedom had been discovered. Either Orb was hiding them to protect them from the Earth Forces or they were Orb's trump card to hold until things got screwed for Orb.

"Uh, Captain Gladys the Chief Representative told us that the Seirans are going to sign the treaty with those monsters in the Alliance," continued Shinn. "She also said that they might hand us over to the Alliance if we don't leave as soon as possible."

"I see thank you, both of you," replied Captain Gladys. "Now make sure you two get cleaned up so we can leave quickly. Once both of you are cleaned up I want you two to go to your stations and be ready for the possibility of having to launch."

"Yes ma'am," acknowledged Shin and Stella as they saluted and left.

Captain Gladys sighed after both of them left and gathered her thoughts on this matter. She didn't know what to think about the attempted assassination of Lacus Clyne, the real Lacus Clyne. Normally, ZAFT Special Forces answered to Chairman Durandal and there was no way he'd want to kill a beloved pop icon for no reason. Something was up and she needed to know about it quick as possible. Shinn and Stella's report was exactly the same as the report Roux gave her after investigating why Shinn sent an emergency signal. Orb military forces got word about the battle that occurred last night and were just about to begin an investigation when it seemed that Cagalli was making a move that be a controversial one. Shinn had even mentioned that Cagalli was going to stage a kidnapping and get the Archangel crew involved.

Seven hours later

The Minerva had gotten away from an ambush laid by the Earth Forces as warned by Cagalli. Shinn went into a berserker rage and destroyed an Earth Forces mobile armor and also laid waste to six of their ships with the assistance of Captain Totica and a few Orb ships carrying Orb mobile suits that had deserted the Orb military after it was apparent that the Seirans were in control.


	4. Chapter 4

I thought about bringing the AEUG in the last chapter but decided against it. This time for sure Juddau and the AEUG come into play.

The AEUG's Arrival and Yuzu's Betrayal

Cagalli breathed a sigh of relief after the Minerva escaped without any lose of life and the AEUG Gundams were a big help for Captain Gladys. Cagalli went against the Seirans, who tried to willingly send the Minerva to their death, and had the Archangel deployed along with the Girty Lue now under Captain Lee's command. Captain Lee and the crew joined the Orb military answering only to the Chief Representative Athha; the Archangel and her crew had the same status, answering only to Chief Representative Athha as well. When most of Orb military heard that the Seirans were taking advantage of the Chief Representative, they began to split and break apart. Unknown to the Seirans, several Astrays and two Murasames were given to the crew and a few Orb pilots joined up with Minerva crew. The reason was because of an ambush that Cagalli warned Captain Gladys about.

_Flashback: Yesterday, Orb Boundary_

The Minerva sailed through the escorting fleet and made their way to the border. Captain Gladys was still trying to process the events that transpired the other day. Shinn and Stella were involved in an assassination attempt of a well loved figure and finding out from Chief Representative Athha that the Seirans were starting to overpower her authority and were going to force her to sign the treaty. This situation was getting out of hand. 'Well at least she warned us about the possibility of an ambush,' thought Captain Gladys as she kept wary eye on what was in front of her. The ship had already gone to Condition Red and the mobile suit pilots were ready to launch at a moment's notice. As soon as the Minerva left Orb's border, not five minutes did an Earth Alliance fleet show up to destroy it. They started with about twenty Windams, seven carrier class ships, a prototype Zamza-Zah mobile armor and last but not least the Neo-Dominion. Captain Gladys was shocked to see the Neo Dominion here on Earth; but it wasn't the time to be shocked, she and her crew had to fight back. She gave orders to prepare for anti-ship, anti-mobile suit combat and have the mobile suits ready to go. When Captain Gladys gave these orders, Arthur took over and made the preparations along with the crew.

"Activate CIWS," began Arthur, "load tubes One through Six with Korinthos, load tubes Seven through Twelve with Parsifals, activate Tristans and Isodles."

"Activate the Tannhauser," added Captain Gladys as she saw the Earth Forces mobile armor coming out to meet them.

"Activating Tannhauser," acknowledged the weapons officer. "releasing safety lock, activating weapon's bank, output stable."

"Target enemy mobile armor," ordered Captain Gladys.

"Targeting enemy mobile armor," acknowledged the weapons officer.

"Fire!"

Positronic energy rushed toward the enemy mobile armor in hopes that the mobile armor would be incinerated with one blast. However the Zamza-Zah activated it's Positronic shield to absorb the blast and began fire back at the Minerva.

"There they are!" exclaimed William. "Quick fire the Gottfrieds! We have to slaughter those space monsters."

Deputy Captain Akihara finally lost her cool with William and Adam; they had pushed her buttons as well as the Captain's buttons as well. 'To hell with Logos,' thought Yuzu as she began to pull out her pistol. Captain Nakamura saw that Yuzu had drawn her pistol to shoot William and Adam. Things were getting out of hand with the two Logos spies; they constantly tried to override her authority and her XO was getting ready to shoot them.

"Ahem, we have an enemy ship in front us," spoke up Captain Nakamura as she pointed to the flashes of red and orange against the clear blue sky. "Let's focus on the enemy first then kill each other later."

The two Logos officers and Deputy Captain Akihara traded sinister glares with each other, except that Deputy Captain Akihara had daggers in her eyes.

"But Captain we have orders to…" started Adam before getting cut off.

"Our orders are to observe and only get in involved if the enemy turns the tide," Captain Nakamura said, repeating orders given to her by the Alliance.

"Captain, heat source approaching mobile armor," cried Sergeant Daniel.

"Don't worry about it Sergeant," said William waving his left hand in confidence. "The Zamza-Zah is more than enough to ensure the blood of those 'things' stains the ocean water."

Adam laughed at William's comment and William joined in laughing with Adam. Captain Nakamura began to see why her XO wanted to shoot those blood thirsty monsters sitting at the helm of her ship. Captain Nakamura had no problems with Coordinators like most of her crew; most of them were from Eurasia and forced into service by threats and intimidation. Secretly they wanted to get back at the Alliance for forced service and also bring Logos down. Captain Nakamura believed that her XO gathered them with help from her father and a few Tsunami Guardian sympathizers. Tsunami Guardians were an organization of Naturals and Coordinators within the nations of Earth Alliance who fought the Earth Forces politically and also in battle. Most battles were fought by Coordinators and a few Naturals. They also made new technology even that the Earth Alliance or ZAFT weren't aware of. Politics were handled by the Naturals with help from some of the Coordinators who were experts in politics. Captain Nakamura had secretly considered joining the Tsunami Guardians; she had contact with them to boot.

Back to the battle, the Impulse and the Minerva's crew were getting overpowered by the sheer numbers the Earth Forces had with them just to destroy one ship. Sai commented that the Alliance must've thought that the Minerva might be a reminder of the Archangel with all the luck they had in battles. Captain Gladys smiled and made the assumption that the Minerva was ZAFT's Archangel ship from what Sai had stated. Things were looking grim for them until a barrage of beams struck the Earth Alliance fleet and the enemy became confused as to who attacked them until the dust settled. When the dust cleared away Shinn noticed a mobile suit similar to the Zeta Gundam charging into battle followed by a ship with the same insignia the three Gundams fighting alongside them.

"Captain have you ever seen a ship like that?" asked Arthur as he was amazed at the ship that just rescued them.

"No, I haven't seen anything like it," answered Captain Gladys. "But considering that they must belong to the AEUG like the three pilots who are helping us, we should at least thank them." She pointed to symbol on the ship. It was a familiar symbol sense the three AEUG Gundams had the AEUG symbol on it.

"This Bright Noa of the AEUG ship, Argama," the ship captain on the COM called to the Minerva. "It looks like we made it on time. You guys need help?"

"This Talia Gladys, captain of the ZAFT assault ship Minerva," replied Captain Gladys. "I thank you for your assistance and accept any help you can give us."

"Roger that Minerva," acknowledged Bright. "All hands Level One battle stations."

"The enemy has a mobile armor that we need to take out," explained Captain Gladys.

"Roger," said Bright before turning to his crew. "Torres, have Juddau join the Minerva's mobile suit and target the mobile armor."

"Yes sir," acknowledged Torres, one of the Argama's bridge officers.

"Roger that," acknowledged Juddau as he turned to face the mobile armor.

Juddau charged towards the mobile armor and help Shinn.

After twenty minutes of fierce fighting and massive destruction of the Earth Alliance fleet, Cagalli came on the visual COM and told them to return to Orb territory for repairs. She explained that the Seirans had set them up for the ambush and she had just found out before she began to write the message warning them about treaty hostile takeover.

The next day Cagalli was now waiting for Roux's plan to fall into place. She first thought it was a crazy idea that Roux suggested to her. But Roux warned her that no matter what she said to Yuna and Unato they were going to twist her words and turn the people against her. Cagalli certainly didn't want the people of Orb to think of her as their enemy. The kidnapping was a perfect way to stick it to the Seirans and she knew that her people would be safe as long as the Seirans kept Orb out of much of the fighting between the Alliance and ZAFT. I guess you could say that Cagalli had some trust in Yuna in keeping Orb out of war. She waited silently, pretending to feel sad about the marriage… no that wasn't it, she actually was sad that she couldn't share with Athrun how she felt about him. While she was lost in their thoughts, one of Yuna's servants informed her that it was time for the wedding procession to start. 'Oh I'll show Yuna and Unato that I'm rebelling against them,' thought Cagalli ash she wiped the tears from her eyes and put on a determined face. 'Roux's plan better work or else I'll be screwed for the rest of my life and Orb will fall.' Cagalli made her way to the hall and met the crowd waiting for her to arrive as well as the idiot she was going ditch at the altar. Cagalli got in the car after Yuna got in and they proceeded to the Shrine of Haumea.

While Cagalli was approaching the Shrine, the crew of the Archangel were launching from their secret base underneath Reverend Malchio's orphanage. Once the Archangel had launched, they made their way to a position near Onogoro Island and Kira launched in the Freedom to retrieve Cagalli before making a swift withdraw from Orb territory. The plan also had adding Astrays and Murasames to supplement the Archangel's ability to fight mobile suits of either the Earth Forces and/or ZAFT should it be necessary. Along with the Freedom and Andrew Waltfeld's customized Murasame, the Archangel had the Strike Rouge for Cagalli should she ever decide to fight as well. Either Roux or Elle would join them once they made their way in the direction of a base being constructed by the Earth Forces. Kira quickly zoomed past Orb Defense Headquarters toward the Shrine while the Orb military was trying to scramble a couple of Murasames to intercept him.

The sounds of air raid sirens couldn't be heard from the Shrine; but just as Yuna and Cagalli were about to confirm their vows a soldier spoke up out of turn.

"It's no good, the forces from HQ can't make it on time," the soldier reported to his superior officer.

Yuna took notice of the soldier's report; he turned and asked, "What is it; what's going on?"

Most of the audience flew into a panic as the Freedom arrived on the scene. Much Yuna's surprise not one of the Astrays opened fire on the Freedom but tilted their shields after the Freedom tilted it's shield first. Yuna tried to hide behind Cagalli but when the Freedom was reaching for Cagalli, Yuna ran away and the four Astrays fled the Shrine toward the Archangel. Yuna couldn't believe what was happening to him; the four Astray pilots he assigned to guard the wedding deserted their post, the Freedom kidnapped his only real threat to not signing the treaty and now it seemed that the Orb military was split between those loyal to Cagalli and those loyal to the Seirans. The Freedom and Astrays made their way to the coast while two Murasames managed to catch up them.

"Attention Freedom," called out one of the Murasame pilots, "we're here to provide assistance and join you on your journey."

"Alright thanks for the help," replied Kira.

The Freedom and Murasames boarded the Archangel while the Astrays were making their way to the Archangel. Once the Astrays were retrieved, the Archangel and four Orb ships including a mobile suit carrier fled from Orb.

"They escaped along with four of our own ships?!" snarled Yuna. "You fools! How could let them get away?!" Yuna was frustrated at the fact that more Orb soldiers deserted him. He and his father were setting a course for the right path and the treaty was supposed to ensure it.

'But maybe it's a good thing she's gone,' thought Yuna with a little smirk on his face. 'Father and I don't have to worry about Cagalli complaining and the position is right for the taking.'

"Well, Father, we don't have to worry about Cagalli getting in our way," Yuna said to his father Unato.

"Yes," agreed Unato. "But now that the Archangel is out and has Cagalli, they're sure to cause trouble for us and for the Alliance."

"What can one ship accomplish?" Yuna asked his father mockingly.

Unato didn't like what Yuna asked him; he knew that if the Archangel could survive a long pursuit of ZAFT forces and fight off the Earth Forces, then they could surely turn the tide of the new war that had started in the wake of the failed attempt to nuke the PLANTS. Unato was sure that the Archangel and it's allies would most likely act as peacekeepers and try to end the war before it got worse.

'Yes, the Archangel could accomplish a lot,' thought Unato.

"We need to warn our friends that the Archangel is on the loose," remarked Unato.

"Oh please, Father, their not much of a threat to the Alliance," Yuna said confidently.

Later that night Unato made a secret communication to Djbril and warned him that the Archangel was now out and roaming the world with four Orb ships that turned traitor on their nation. Djbril was shocked to hear that the Archangel was on the loose and they were aided by traitors to their to own kind. Oh they would die the same way the crew of the Girty Lue would die, a brutally bloody and savage death. Nonetheless, Djbril wanted to destroy the Archangel and now that they were in open he would have the chance to have his lackeys destroy them.

The Angel Peacekeepers, as they called themselves now, headed towards the base that was being constructed by the Earth Forces. The problem was that they had to go near Carpentaria in order to get to the base and shut it down. Captain Ramius thought they were in a predicament since she thought they had no intelligence on the base. Cagalli assured her that Kisaka would provide the necessary Intel on the base before they launched their attack. It would take them at least two days to reach the base, assuming that ZAFT wouldn't engage them in battle. They set course for the Earth Forces' new frontline base and hoped they wouldn't have to face mobile armors like the Minerva had to when they left Orb.

Within a day and a half the Angel Peacekeepers were in striking distance of the frontline base. This was it for them, they had their work cut out for them. However with the Neo-Dominion stationed their in preparation to strike Carpentaria, it would be a little bit harder for them to shut down the base as they took into consideration the info Mu gave them about the Neo-Dominion.

"Captain Nakamura, we've detected five ships approaching the base," said Sergeant Daniels as she read off what she saw on her screen.

"What, five ships?" asked Captain Nakamura puzzled at recent news.

"Identified as three Orb Aegis class ships, one Orb Takemikazumichi class ship," replied Sergeant Daniels, "and…"

"And?" chimed in Deputy Captain Akihara.

"Oh crap, we're screwed," whimpered Sergeant Daniels. "The Archangel is in the group too."

"The ARCHANGEL?!" roared William.

"Calm down William," Adam said as he put his hand on the shoulder of his fellow Logos comrade. "We should think of this as a good thing since they're coming to us. Don't forget that those 'things' supported the space monsters and fought on their side in the last war."

William calmed down and sat back down at his station. Deputy Captain Akihara turned away and smiled; she wanted to leave the Neo-Dominion and Archangel would be her ticket out off the ship.

"Hey fellas, would you boys mind covering for me for ten minutes?" requested Deputy Captain Akihara.

"Why should we?" challenged Adam.

"Uh, I'm hungry and I want to go to the mess hall and get a quick snack," lied Deputy Captain Akihara.

"Well, you can't fight on an empty stomach," offered William.

"Yeah, no kidding," agreed Deputy Captain Akihara.

"Sure no problem," William and Adam agreed to the XO.

Yuzu walked to the elevator and punched the button for the deck in which the mess hall was located on. When she arrived in the mess hall she was met by fourteen other crew members. Two crew members were ship engineers, four were mobile suit pilots, two were doctors, of course Deputy Captain Akihara was there as the leader, three were marines for repelling borders, one was a ZAFT prisoner disguised as an Earth Forces soldier and the last two were mobile suit mechanics. Their meeting began after they told the cooks to take a break. When the cooks left the kitchen, Deputy Captain Akihara locked the door and turned off the COM system to the mess hall. She took a deep breath and began the meeting.

"Okay guys," began Deputy Captain Akihara, "the Archangel is on the way towards the Alliance's frontline base. Our only chance to escape is during the battle against the Archangel. When the fight starts we have to make sure we have everything ready to go."

Deputy Captain Akihara sat down motioned for the mobile suit pilots to report their preparations for the escape. The lead mobile suit pilot, Momo Ashton, stood up and made her report without Deputy Captain Akihara to start; she knew the task that was assigned to them.

"Ma'am, provisions are secured and are on board our Windams," Momo reported clearly and professionally.

"Ammunition?" asked Deputy Captain Akihara

"Ma'am, we have five assault rifles with four clips for each of them," answered Momo, "everyone has secured a pistol for themselves along with three clips and a set of four small grenades."

Deputy Captain Akihara gave a quick nod and the Ensign sat down in her seat. The next person to make a report was the ZAFT prisoner, First Lieutenant Jacob Hannity of Aprilius 4. He stood up and looked around the group and cleared his throat and began with help from Deputy Captain Akihara.

"Alright Lieutenant, status on the Neo Dominion's ability defend itself," inquired Deputy Captain.

"Ma'am, Korinthos have been sabotaged," reported Lieutenant Hannity. "Effectiveness to the Gottfrieds has been greatly reduced to fifteen percent, munitions to Igelstellungs have been transferred to the ground anti-air batteries, rewiring to Sledgehammers has rendered them useless, Helldarts are rigged for self-destruction upon firing."

"And the Lohengrins?" asked Deputy Captain Akihara.

"Ma'am, power conduits to the Lohengrin cannons have been severed here, here, and here." Lieutenant Hannity pointed to the locations where he severed the power conduits to the Lohengrin cannons.

Deputy Captain Akihara nodded in approval while Lieutenant Hannity sat down. The doctors had already made their report before the meeting so they didn't have to do it in front of the group. They were disturbed by Deputy Captain Akihara's request to withhold medical supplies from the rest of the crew in case they were stuck on the island with the civilians. She now motioned to the mechanics to make their report.

"Status on the Shadow Stalker, G-Killer, Duel Dagger," inquired Deputy Captain Akihara.

"Ma'am we've pulled out a few wires in the cockpit of the three mobile suits," read Chief Ashley Watson, from her report. "Munitions for the Vulcans on all three mobile suits have been replaced with blanks, beam javelin for Shadow Stalker has seven wires frozen with liquid nitrogen as well as the exterior cover, beam rifle for the G-Killer has lost forty three point seven percent of its energy and it's beam sabers have a reduction of combat effectiveness down to fifty two point one percent."

"What about the power to the mobile suits?" asked Deputy Captain Akihara.

"Ma'am, power packs have been replaced with duds," answered Petty Officer Kelly Eubanks, Ashley's cousin.

"Good, good," replied Deputy Captain Akihara as she breathed a sigh of relief after hearing the mobile suits of the Extendeds were sabotaged. The last report came from the two ship engineers and Warrant Officer Linda Polaski stood up began giving her report without Deputy Captain Akihara to start.

"Ma'am, the majority of the Neo-Dominion's fuel was shipped to the Lunar Fleet. Power to basic operating systems has been drastically reduced by seventy eight point four percent. Computer viruses are set go off when we begin our escape."

"Will they be detected when the networks are scanned before take off?" asked Deputy Captain Akihara.

"Ma'am, no ma'am," answered Crewman Justin Cousteau. "They'll appear as a normal program during the scan. The viruses are programmed to go off on the rescheduled time."

"All right everything is in place," said Deputy Captain Akihara as she unlocked the mess hall and reestablished the COM link. "Everyone, report to your stations and make a final check of our preparations. I want to make sure that our escape is done by the book and no fatalities."

"Ma'am!" acknowledged the group of fourteen soon-to-be traitors

After the cooks returned from the ten minute break they were given by Deputy Captain Akihara, she grabbed a ham sandwich with Swiss cheese and munched on it as she headed back to the bridge. When she returned to the bridge, she saluted Captain Nakamura and returned to her post which William and Adam were reluctant to relinquish back to Deputy Captain Akihara. She opened a terminal to her personal computer in her quarters and began deleting all personal files and any possible documents that might lead the Alliance to any Tsunami Guardian base within the either Earth Alliance or ZAFT territory. All traces of her combat record with the Earth Alliance were destroyed. After clearing that mess she closed the terminal and after beginning a system overload of her personal computer in her quarters, the Deputy Captain breathed a sigh of relief and then resumed her post.

"Captain, the Archangel has begun it's advance to our base," reported Sergeant Daniels. "The Minerva is right behind it distance 2100."

"Have they conspired together?" Captain Nakamura asked herself loud enough for William and Adam to hear.

Captain Nakamura barked orders for everyone to get their stations as they came under fire from two Orb Aegis-class ships and the Archangel. A missile struck the Neo-Dominion when Deputy Captain Akihara made her move.

"Hey, what are you doing?" demanded William.

"I'm going to go help seal the bulkheads," answered Deputy Captain Akihara. "I'm also gonna help with damage control too."

"Very well Deputy Captain Akihara," praised Captain Nakamura. "See that I get a report when the battle is over."

"Ma'am!" acknowledged Deputy Captain Akihara as she headed for the elevator.

"Captain, we have an unidentified ship flying with the Minerva," reported Sergeant Daniels.

"Damn, it must be that ship that destroyed part of our ambush fleet," remarked Adam

"All right you guys," Yuzu whispered into her private COM to the other fourteen deserters, "time to abandon ship and into the arms of the Angel."

"Ma'am," the fourteen deserters acknowledged.

Everyone made their way to their stations. The mobile suit pilots carrying provisions and supplies boarded their mobile suits while the rest of the deserters knocked out the two guards for two motor boats they stashed on board when they arrived on Earth. The three marines took point and lead the way to escape hatch. Once at the escape hatch the group threw the boats into the water and repelled down into them. Lieutenant Hannity and Yuzu took the control of the boats and sped towards the Archangel dodging falling debris with ease. Momo Ashton lead the other three Windam mobile suit pilots to the Archangel and contacted them after switching to a different frequency; Momo sent a message instead giving a verbal communication.

"Captain Ramius, we've received a message from a Momo Ashton requesting permission to board our ship along with three other Windam mobile suits and two motor boats heading our way," reported Lacus.

Murrue and Mu were startled by Lacus's report; but something didn't add up to Captain Ramius. 'Why would Earth Forces soldiers and mobile suit pilots want to board the Archangel in the middle of a battle?' thought Captain Ramius.

"Let's allow them on board," suggested Mu. "They were probably forced into service by Logos."

"Logos?" asked Cagalli confused by Mu's statement.

"They're an organization wealthy radical businessmen who rely on wars starting in order to make profits," explained Mu. "They also founded the terrorist organization Blue Cosmos. Most of the decisions that the Earth Alliance makes come from Logos and their leader, a guy named Lord Djbril. Djbril is ruthless and bloodthirsty; he's a lot worse than Murata Azrael."

Murrue thought about it and made her decision. She was going to take these deserters in send them someplace safe from the Alliance.

"Lacus send them a message that they have permission to board the Archangel," requested Murrue.

"Yes Captain," acknowledged Lacus as she began typing a response to Momo Ashton.

"Ma'am, the Archangel is allowing us to board their ship," reported Momo.

"All right," said Yuzu. "Head to the Archangel.

"Ma'am!" acknowledged the mobile suit pilots and Lieutenant Hannity as they sped towards the Archangel. Within five minutes the deserters were on board the Archangel, finally away from those two idiots from Logos.

"Captain Nakamura, our mechanics are reporting that four Windams are missing," reported Sergeant Daniels.

"What?" asked Captain Nakamura confused with her mind in different places.

"Captain, we have a report that Deputy Captain Akihara and ten other crewmen overpowered two guards, three mechanics and deserted the ship," reported Susan Ashton taking over the communication officer position for Sergeant Daniels.

"She did WHAT?!" roared William in shock.

"That bitch!" exclaimed Adam. "She was an enemy all along!"

"Hey hold on," protested Judy, "I've known Yuzu for most of my life since we grew up in Omaha together. She wouldn't just walk away from her post.

"Maybe those fourteen crewmen overpowered her and took her as a hostage," said Judy as she tried to come up with a logical explanation on why Yuzu left the Neo Dominion.

"Captain Gladys we have indications that a battle is taking place at an island nearby," reported Meyrin.

"There's a battle going on?" asked Captain Gladys confused. "Whose fighting who?"

"Checking thermal patterns," said Abby as she took the role as radar operator, "It's the Archangel, three Orb Aegis-class ships and one Orb Takemikazumichi-class ship engaging an Earth Forces fleet stationed there."

"What? The Archangel is fighting?" asked Arthur surprised to hear the Archangel was fighting the Earth Forces again along with Orb ships. "What do we do Captain; should we help them?"

"Lower the bridge," ordered Captain Gladys, "bring the ship to Condition Red; have the mobile suit pilots ready to launch."

"Yes ma'am," acknowledged Meyrin as she began lowering the bridge. "Going to Condition Red; going to Condition Red. All pilots board your machines and standby."

Shinn was eagerly wanting to fight the Earth Forces for the cowardly attack they tried to pull on the PLANTS and it seemed that he would get his chance now that the ship was going into combat.

"Mobile suit pilots," Captain Gladys called from the lounge screen, "we've detected an Earth Alliance frontline base and it's under attack from the Archangel."

The mobile suit pilots were shocked to hear that the Archangel had started a battle. For Athrun, it didn't seem like Kira to start a fight with no explanation. But then again he might've gotten word that the Earth Forces had were going to strike Carpentaria and they had begun intercepting them.

"We don't know what they are doing," explained Captain Gladys, "but we're going to support them in their attack on the Earth Forces frontline base.

Shinn was pleased to hear that they were going strike back at the Earth Forces for the ambush at the boundary of Orb Union. He felt honored that he would be fighting alongside a legendary ship from the last war, even if they were originally from the Earth Alliance. He made his way to the elevator with Stella quickly getting in before it closed. While the elevator gently made its way to the hangar, Stella put her arms around Shinn's waist laid her head on his head back.

"Shinn, there's something that I want to tell you," Stella said as she looked at him. "I never got a chance to tell you this when we were at Kira and Lacus's house."

"Tell me what?" asked Shinn as he turned around to face her.

"Ever since you came into my life," began Stella, "I've been a lot calmer and more open to other people. I also have felt that you mean a lot to me."

"Stella," said Shinn as he tried to figure what Stella was telling him.

"Shinn, I love you," finished Stella as she embraced him and dropped her helmet.

"I love you too, Stella," said Shinn as he dropped his helmet and embraced Stella. As the elevator stopped and opened Yolant and Vino noticed Shinn and Stella embraced and were kissing each other. After Shinn noticed Vino and Yolant blushing in embarrassment, he and Stella picked up their helmets and quickly ran to their mobile suits; Yolant and Vino shook their heads trying to forget what they saw but failed. The other mobile suit pilots made their way down the elevator and began boarding their mobile suits. Lunamaria boarded a Murasame she decided to pilot instead of the Blaze ZAKU Gunner she started piloting at first. She took a liking to the versatility of the Murasame and the fact that she wasn't stuck to fighting on the deck of the Minerva like she would've been with her Blaze ZAKU Gunner. Her Murasame had it's armor upgraded to Phase Shift in part thanks to Chairman Durandal. Captain Gladys couldn't feel like the Chairman was trying to butter up her crew into fully supporting him. The Captain had started to develop a sense of suspicion after Roux began commenting that she thought the Chairman was up to something when he graciously began helping her, Elle and Puru. Captain Gladys didn't want to be suspicious of Chairman Durandal but with the attempted assassination of Lacus Clyne and the sudden appearance of another person claiming to be the songstress, something was definitely brewing in the PLANTS and the Chairman was up to something. Things were mixed in the battle; Athrun and Shinn were swarmed by Windams and Earth Forces were hiding a secret they didn't want ZAFT to find. Unfortunately for the Earth Forces, Shinn broke through the swarm of Windams, joined up with Stella on the island and they both found the Alliance's secret. They were horrified to see civilians were being forced to build the base, let alone that the base wasn't complete. Stella relayed their discovery back to the Minerva and they in turn relayed the news to the Archangel. Astrays from the Archangel launched to go liberate the civilians being forced to build the base. It was a little late to be launching their other mobile suits, when they saw explosions coming from the base. Lunamaria, Cagalli and Athrun managed to shoot down the Windams that tried to swarm both ships.

"We're retreating back to Suez," said Captain Nakamura putting every effort into maintaining her professional face.

"But Captain," Adam began to protest, "we have to stand and fight against those monsters."

"Launch our remaining Windams and recover the Shadow Stalker, G-Killer and Duel Dagger," ordered Captain Nakamura. "Once they have been recovered, launch signal flares to the remaining ships and we'll begin our withdraw."

William and Adam were furious with Captain Nakamura; she wasn't following their orders. Although she was their superior officer in the Earth Forces, she was inferior in the Logos organization. But there was a problem for William and Adam, Captain Nakamura wasn't part of the Logos organization, therefore she wasn't bound to their authority as Logos agents. She had to go and they would begin to find someone they could control easily. Signal flares were fired and the Neo-Dominion and the survivors began their withdraw leaving any Earth Forces soldiers still left on the island behind, steaming to Suez.

The Earth Forces soldiers left behind on the island weren't fortunate like remaining fleet left alive. The Impulse and Gaia went on a rampage methodically destroying the base. The civilians took the opportunity to escape when the base came under attack. A few soldiers noticed and fired on the fleeing men who only wanted to reunite with their families. Shinn noticed this crushed them to death; he also noticed the fences that separated the workers from their families. The Impulse gently ripped out part of the fence so the workers could finally get back to their loved ones. The people on both sides of the fences were overjoyed to be reunited with each other. They looked to both the Impulse and Gaia; they wanted to see face of their liberators.

"Shinn, I think the people want to see us," observed Stella.

"Do you want to meet the people?" asked Shinn.

"Yeah I do," answered Stella.

Both of them exited their Gundams to meet with the people. They were surprised to see a couple of teenagers piloting the mobile suits that saved them from the Alliance; what was more shocking was to them an Earth Forces soldier and a ZAFT soldier worked together. Stella noticed some of the people were uneasy with her because she wore the Earth Forces flight suit still.

"I'm not with the Earth Alliance anymore," Stella assured the people. "I left them after I found out what they did to me and my friends. They were cruel and…"

Shinn put his hand on Stella's shoulder and she calmed down. Two young children approached Shinn and Stella giving them a each a few small flowers as a token of appreciation. Stella smiled and patted a little girl on the head and thanked her for the flowers. Shinn thanked the little girl who gave him the small flowers as well.

"Thank you for helping us reunite with our loved ones," said one of the men who was forced to build the Earth Forces base. "We won't forget your kindness."

"Don't thank just ZAFT," said Shinn, "the Archangel and four Orb ships loyal to Chief Representative Athha came and helped out as well."

The people were surprised to hear that the Archangel appeared and helped in the efforts in freeing the people from the Alliance's oppression. They knew that the Archangel had defected and fought against the Alliance and helped end the war at Yakin Do Wei. It was an honor to have a legend help them out.

Later, once the mobile suits had been recalled the people of the island invited the crews of the Minerva and the Archangel for dinner of appreciation which both captains accepted. Some of the people were surprised to see Yuzu and her fellow deserters on the island because they still wore their uniforms from the Earth Forces. Yuzu revealed that she really belonged to the Tsunami Guardians and she was bringing new recruits their headquarters. Both Murrue and Talia had heard rumors of the Tsunami Guardians but never saw them in battle. For a member of the Tsunami Guardians to infiltrate the Earth Forces and escape was an amazing feat. The residents and crew of both the Archangel and Minerva enjoyed their feast and rested for the night.

When morning broke, Yuzu and her companions burned the Earth Forces uniforms they wore before wearing spare Orb uniforms. 'I'll have to wait until I make contact with the Tsunami Guardians to get a replacement uniform,' thought Yuzu as she typed an e-mail to her childhood friend from Omaha, Judy Daniels. In her e-mail Yuzu apologized to Judy and explained that she couldn't tell her about who she really was affiliated with. She also promised Judy that she was going to get her off the Neo-Dominion and help her join the Tsunami Guardians too. Her final instructions were too delete the e-mail after she finished reading it. After pressing the send button, Yuzu shut off her terminal and reported to her station on the Archangel. She made sure before turning off her terminal to eliminate all traces of her location. She did this for two reasons: The first reason was so the Earth Forces couldn't find her so they could threaten her or her family and friends; the second reason was to protect the crew of the Archangel from the Earth Alliance and so they couldn't trace their location.

Djbril's Manor, Alexandria, VA

Djbril threw a glass vase on the floor after receiving a report from the two Logos agents he assigned to the Neo-Dominion. They were definitely trying to control Captain Nakamura like they were told to do but Captain Nakamura wouldn't follow their orders like she was supposed to. To make matters worse the Deputy Captain deserted and joined the Archangel when it attacked the frontline base along with help from the Minerva and the unknown ship that helped them fight out. Things were going down hill for Djbril and rest of the Logos organization once the Archangel suddenly appeared and Deputy Captain Akihara's desertion from the Neo-Dominion. The report stated that it was possible that Deputy Captain Akihara was part of the Tsunami Guardians, but both William and Adam had no evidence to back up their theory. Deputy Captain Akihara never showed any suspicious actions or acted suspicious to warrant any investigations by Logos.

"The Tsunami Guardians, eh?" wondered Djbril as he pondered the name. Everyone in Logos had heard of the Tsunami Guardians but never saw them.

He poured a glass of wine sipped it gently to calm himself down and he began to gather his thoughts on his next actions against ZAFT. They had to be exterminated quickly but the Earth Forces had used a lot of their nuclear missiles and failed to destroy the PLANTS. He opened up some blueprints for their next destructive weapon. 'This new machine will definitely be the perfect instrument in the destruction of the Coordinators,' thought Djbril as he continued to gently sip his red French wine from a vineyard near Tousles.


	5. Chapter 5

This chapter is where you'll meet the Tsunami Guardians, the organization in which Yuzu Akihara belongs to. Enjoy and please leave comments to improve the story.

Meeting the Tsunami Guardians and the Formation of a New Coalition

"What did you say?" Murrue asked Yuzu surprised at what she said.

"I said that the Tsunami Guardians would like to meet with the captains of the Archangel, Minerva and Argama," answered Yuzu calmly. "They've set up a meeting at a disclosed location for security purposes. So you'll have to notify the captains of the Minerva and Argama of the meeting."

"All right we'll notify them right away," acknowledged Murrue.

"Thank you Captain," said Yuzu as she slightly bowed to Murrue which Murrue returned.

"All right understood," acknowledged Captain Gladys as she cut the communications with the Archangel.

"Captain, are we really going to meet these Tsunami Guardians?" asked Arthur surprised.

"Why not?" Captain Gladys asked back. "They seem to be open to an alliance maybe we can get them help out with the fight against these Logos people Commander La Flaga mentioned after the fight."

"Yes, he did mention them," agreed Arthur. "But do you think that these Tsunami Guardians would fight against Logos?"

"Well, we won't know until we ask them," answered Captain Gladys as turned back to her terminal. "Meyrin have Shinn, Lunamaria, Sting, Stella, Sai and the AEUG pilots meet me in the briefing room."

"Yes ma'am," acknowledged Meyrin.

"Understood," acknowledged Bright as he cut communications with the Minerva.

Bright sighed as he began to process what happened with his three Gundams. Their armor had replaced with this Phase Shift armor, had new weapon upgrades, Qubeley Mk II had DRAGOON pods instead of the Funnels which she had initially at the start and the Gundam Mk II had a fighter that attached to it to supplement it's existing power. Like Elle, it reminded him of the G-Defenser from the Gryps Conflict with the Titans and Axis; he was flabbergasted when he heard that the fighter had been called G-Defenser like it's predecessor. Bright was lucky that Chairman Durandal accepted his apology for Juddau's rash action and even upgraded the ZZ and Hyaku Shiki to the same specifications as the three still on loan with the Minerva. He gathered his thoughts and headed to the mobile suit hangar and waited for Beecha and Juddau so they could go the Minerva and then jump to the Archangel so they could meet with the Tsunami Guardians. According to the instructions passed to him from Major Yuzu Akihara, the Archangel was the only ship to fly to the meeting area. Apparently, the Tsunami Guardians didn't trust that the Minerva didn't have tracking devices on the ship and the Argama might've had a tracking device slipped on their ship when they were in Carpentaria. So that left the Archangel to fly to the meeting point. Juddau and Beecha arrived in the hangar and Bright hitched a ride with Juddau in the ZZ.

"Alright Juddau, no funny stuff and just let us handle the negotiations," instructed Bright.

"I'm not gonna do anything stupid," assured Juddau after recalling nearly having ZAFT targeting the Argama before being allowed to enter port with the Minerva.

"Better not Juddau," added Beecha still sore at Juddau for having his mobile suit taking heavy damage in that brief scuffle with the DINNs had Roux not stepped in and persuaded the DINNs to back off.

Bright gave orders for Torres to have Yszak and Dearka, who were on loan to them by ZAFT, to be on standby and defend the ship.

After receiving the Gundams from the Argama and Minerva, the Archangel changed course leaving the Argama and Minerva behind. They headed to a base in an area where Ethiopia's capital once stood. As they approached the Tsunami Guardians' base Yuzu gave Lacus instructions to switch to a frequency unknown to the Alliance or ZAFT. When Lacus switched to the frequency she had take off the headset she was wearing because she heard was an awful squealing noise.

"What is that frequency?" asked Lacus as she handed the headset to Yuzu.

"It's a jamming frequency to ensure that radar is useless," answered Yuzu as she pointed to the Archangel's radar going in different directions and picking up phantom contacts.

"Mr. Akihara we've got a ship on our radar," a radar operator reported to Senator Keigo Akihara. "Checking thermal patterns… Sir it's the Archangel."

The senator breathed a sigh of relief that his daughter was able to escape from the Alliance unharmed and he hoped that she brought new recruits like she promised. But he had to regain his composure and instructed the defense force to scramble quickly. Four DRAGOON Sabers managed to scramble quickly because the four pilots were getting ready a practice run. They launched on a direct intercept course to the Archangel. The leader Jason Daniels, Judy Daniels' brother, took the lead of the intercept formation as they streaked towards the Archangel.

After twenty minutes of having a disabled radar, the Archangel's radar system was restored and warning alarms went off.

"Captain, I'm picking up four heat sources," reported Lacus as she sat back down at the CIC. "Checking thermal patterns… not listed."

This startled both Murrue and Captain Gladys as they heard that the mobile suits were unknown.

"Is there a visual on the mobile suits?" asked Captain Gladys before realizing that she wasn't on the Minerva. "Sorry Captain Ramius, I'm kind of nervous leaving the Minerva behind."

"It's alright," replied Murrue. "I was nervous when I first commanded the Archangel."

"Uh Captain," spoke up Lacus. "I have a visual on the four unknowns." She projected an image of four fighters in an intercept course. Yuzu recognized them right off the bat and replied, "Those are DRAGOON Sabers. They're transformable mobile suit used for ship escorts and infantry support.

Yuzu borrowed Lacus' headset and spoke to the leader of the DRAGOON Sabers, "Hey there, I see you've got a doofus piloting a DRAGOON Saber. So casual, so neat, so dumb."

"Ha, ha, ha, that was so funny I forgot to puke," shot back Jason sarcastically. "I mean… I forgot to laugh."

"Just like the time Andrew made that sarcastic remark about you being a momma's boy," recalled Yuzu.

"Hey wait a minute!" exclaimed Jason over the visual COM.

"Oh calm down Jason," said Yuzu as she typed in identification codes. "I'm sending my identification code and the identification code for the visiting ship."

"Roger that Yuzu," acknowledged Jason as he read the identification codes rolling down his screen. "You know your dad is waiting for you."

"I'm sure he is ," said Yuzu. "I'm sorry that I didn't bring Judy with me. I wanted to bring her with me but I couldn't bring more than what I brought."

"But you're gonna bring her to our side, right?" asked Jason.

"Yeah," answered Yuzu, "I'm not gonna leave Judy in the hands of those bastards in Logos."

"You better not," Jason told Yuzu sternly.

The Archangel landed on a large landing pad and was taken down through an elevator in the middle of a large lake that used to be Addis Abba. Captain Gladys was appalled at the destruction she saw. No doubt the Earth Forces were responsible for the destruction of the Ethiopian capital after they refused entry to the Earth Forces. Yuzu saw the reactions of Captain Gladys and Murrue and explained, "ZAFT soldiers were on the run trying to seek a safe haven from the Earth Forces when they came here Addis Abba. The people here welcomed them and promised to protect them. The Earth Forces came into Ethiopia violating it's neutrally destroying any town in their wake that refused to cooperate them. When they came here, they began to sack the capital searching for the ZAFT soldiers. The people gave their lives to protect them but only Lieutenant Hannity stayed behind and offered himself as a prisoner and tried to bargain with the Earth Forces and let people walk while he would be their prisoner."

"I'm guessing they didn't honor their deal," assumed Murrue.

"Hey, who was the commander who lead the march into Addis Abba?" asked Mu after staying to the side for while.

"The bastard commander," recalled Yuzu trying to remember his name, "his name was William Sutherland." Murrue and Mu froze when Yuzu mentioned the former Admiral Sutherland. He was the man who lead the inquiry into the Archangel's journey and sentenced the crew to death because they associated with Coordinators and didn't kill them like should've done.

Yuzu saw their faces and said, "From the look on your faces I gather you knew the bastard."

Then the elevator stopped and Yuzu said as she headed to the ship's elevator, "We're here better get ready to meet the brass and my father, Senator Keigo Akihara."

Murrue and Mu's eyes lit up when they heard Senator Akihara's name; they heard about the guy but never thought he lead such a secret group.

The large group left the Archangel and sat in three different rooms. The pilots sat in the pilots' lounge; the new recruits sat in another room and the commanding officers sat in the large conference room.

"This is a nice looking conference room," said Arthur as he was paying attention to some of the details in the room.

"I gotta agree with Arthur," said Mu as he too was paying attention to the details in the conference room.

While Mu and Arthur were acting like kids in a candy store, Senator Akihara and Yuzu came in the conference room. When Arthur and Mu saw Senator Akihara they returned to their professional stance. The senator just laughed and said to them, "I get the same reaction from a lot of officers when they see this conference room. Now that that's out of the way, let's get to business."

Everyone sat and the meeting began. Senator Akihara introduced himself and the brass accompanying him. The senator, born in St. Louis, Missouri, was six foot four inches, weighed a hundred ninety-seven pounds and wore inexpensive and casual attire for someone who lead an organization very secretive. He had black hair and green eyes like his daughter Yuzu. Senator Akihara spoke with the captains about Intel his intelligence units uncovered from both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT. It seemed much to Captain Gladys's surprised that Chairman Durandal was planning to unleash something unknown to her and Arthur called the Destiny Plan. The Argama crew had no clue what the senator said; while the Archangel command staff knew all too well about the Destiny Plan. Captain Gladys and Bright turned to Murrue and asked, "What is the Destiny Plan?"

"It's a plan that would have people governed by their genes," answered Murrue.

"But the Destiny Plan we had to stop was different from this plan," added Cagalli who stayed on the sidelines. "The Destiny Plan we stopped was one done by Rau Le Creuset; that plan was intended for the destruction of all mankind."

"I see," acknowledged Senator Akihara. "Where did you find out about these plans?"

"At the Mendel Colony," answered Mu, "when we used the colony as a base; or at least tried to use to it as a base."

While command staff was meeting with Senator Akihara, the pilots sat in a pilots' lounge waiting for their turn to meet with the senator. Most of the pilots were sitting around or playing the arcade games in the lounge. Shinn was sitting on a couch with Stella sitting on his lap and napping on his left shoulder. Lacus took notice of this and smiled before she turned and saw a bookshelf. Shinn eventually fell asleep and laid his head on Stella's head. Lunamaria was still a little jealous that Shinn fell for Stella even she was a Natural, or so she thought; but then again she fell in love with a Natural too. Sting was sitting in a simulator and playing a mobile suit simulation game with Lunamaria standing next to the simulator. Roux, like Lacus decided to read a book; it had been a while since Roux read a good book and she seemed glued to the book. Juddau paced around the floor waiting for the meeting. Athrun noticed Shinn and Stella sleeping peacefully and then turned to Kira as they began a conversation. Puru was wondering why Lacus was in the pilots' lounge as she was fighting to stay awake; she was really bored and not much was their for her to do, despite the fact there were video game arcade machines.

After waiting for two more hours, Senator Akihara arrived to greet the pilots. Shinn and Stella were still asleep when the senator arrived and had to be woken up by Sting. After Shinn and Stella had woken up from their nap Senator Akihara began the meeting with the pilots. He was surprised when the AEUG pilots had said that they weren't Naturals or Coordinators, but Newtypes. Roux had to explain what Newtypes were and the abilities that Newtypes possessed. The senator continued the meeting and took them all to their production facility. They were all amazed at the mobile suits and the technology that was being experimented with or tested again and again. Luna took notice of a mobile suit in a water tank using energy weapons and the weapons weren't malfunctioning and the energy armor hadn't diminished after the three minute time limit Senator Akihara mentioned.

"How come the energy armor hasn't diminished after the three minute time limit?" asked Luna.

"It's using an energy armor called Aqua Shift," answered Senator Akihara. "It's like Phase Shift but it uses hydrogen atoms to charge up the power cells. The armor is used for underwater combat and the energy weapons use hydrogen atoms from the water and turns them into energy for the weapons."

"Wow, that's impressive!" exclaimed Luna.

Senator Akihara continued the tour of the production facility and had asked to have their Gundams examined and their combat data examined. Kira was a bit cautious when Senator Akihara asked to examine the Freedom. But something about the senator told Kira that he was a trustworthy person. The other Gundam pilots had already given their consent. Shinn asked the senator to make sure that there wasn't any trace of foreign inspection. Senator Akihara agreed to the terms and asked the pilots to begin moving their Gundams to the facility and he would talk to the captains about the upcoming research on the mobile suits.

Research on the Gundams went quickly because they had to make sure the Minerva arrived to Mahamul in the Middle East on time. Their intelligence indicated that a major operation was about to commence and they wanted in on the operation as well to test their amphibious assault tactics and assaulting the power plant would be perfect for them. ZAFT and the Angel Peacekeepers would assault Lohengrin Gate while the Tsunami Guardians would come in and help liberate the people. But of course the senator would have to send his daughter back out in the field and she just got back from the Neo-Dominion. 'Knowing Yuzu, she'll throw herself into any danger,' thought Senator Akihara as he chuckled to himself softly. Then a thought came to him.

"I was wondering if you guys want to form an alliance with each other," said Senator Akihara trying to appeal to the Gundam pilots and Lacus.

"Huh? What do you mean 'form an alliance with each other?" asked Shinn confused by the senator's question.

"I can see that you Gundam pilots have great potential," began Senator Akihara. "I believe that each of you can bring out the potential of each by working together as a team united with the hope of ending this war."

"I'm all for fellow Gundam pilots," spoke up Juddau.

"Count me in," said Auel as he raised his hand.

The other Gundam pilots agreed to this except for Shinn; he was hesitant and wasn't sure that the others were working toward the same goals as he was. Stella approached Shinn and tried to talk him into joining with her and other Gundam pilots.

"I want to join," said Shinn, "really I do; but… I don't see how all of us bringing each other's potential is going to end war."

"I didn't say that you were going to end war altogether," Senator Akihara said to Shinn. "But as peacekeepers, you can prevent war from escalating out of control or preventing another war from happening. By working together as peacekeepers, you learn from each other's battles and also help each other by bringing out the true power that Gundams are supposed to have.

"I believe you've experienced this young man," finished Senator Akihara as he pointed to Shinn. Shinn looked at the senator confused as he tried to recall the incident where he brought out the Impulse's true power.

Stella looked at Shinn and said, "Don't you remember those people we helped? It was when you and I destroyed the Alliance's frontline base and rescued the those who were forced to build the base. The people saw the Impulse and Gaia and cheered."

"In other words Shinn," interrupted Roux, "people see Gundams as either a hero or their hero to rally behind."

"Gundams are… heroes?" asked Shinn puzzled by Roux's statement. He pondered her statement and finally understood what she meant. Shinn nodded and said, "Alright, count me in."

"Very well then," acknowledged Senator Akihara as he began to walk towards the mechanics. "I better check on your Gundams and make sure that they are done with the research on them.

"Once they're done," finished Senator Akihara, "you'll need to get them back to the Archangel so you can return to your ships."

Shinn gave a nod of acknowledgement for the group and they returned to the pilots' lounge. Once they returned to the lounge, Stella became tired and fell asleep on Shinn's shoulder again. 'Ever since they stopped getting treated with those stupid pods, Stella's been tired a lot,' thought Shinn as he too began to fall asleep. 'I don't blame her for being tired; but she needs to do something besides sleep.'

Another hour passed and most of the Gundam pilots were asleep either sitting on a chair, in someone's lap or even on the floor, preferably on a rug. The only one who wasn't asleep was Juddau, because he was afraid of bringing on Roux's wrath upon his wretched life. He tried falling asleep but Roux would grunt if he did fall asleep, because she fell asleep on his lap. The senator and his research staff walked in and found almost everyone asleep except Juddau. He gave a evil smirk and slammed the clipboard on a brass bell waking up the sleepy Gundam pilots. After the pilots made their way to the mobile suit hangar, they returned their mobile suits to the Archangel and prepped them for the return journey.

The recruits were greeted and quickly assigned to duty because apparently the Earth Forces were on their way to base in order to seize the Tsunami Guardians' new technology from them. The senator had found the traitor and unfortunately had him drown in the lake. Normally the Tsunami Guardians withheld any forms of execution, except for those in the brass or top secret projects. This traitor was trying to pass on the secrets of the Aqua Shift armor to the Earth Forces and the Aqua Shift armor was a classified project and the traitor had fallen into that category. Senator Akihara gave orders for the staff to activate the base's self-destruct system and have all the research data destroyed and the experimental mobile suits moved to the Tsunami's Fist and the Hope of Faith. The Gundam pilots and all crew members volunteered to help out and make the evacuation go faster.

Three hours passed and the Tsunami Guardians' base self-destructed collapsing the only entrance to the escape tunnel that lead to the coast. Once out in the ocean the group parted ways. The Tsunami Guardians turned to ward the Red Sea while the Archangel headed back to where they left the Argama and Minerva. Once they returned to the coordinates, they found only the Argama was there; the Minerva had left towards Mahamul. Captain Gladys wondered who the idiot was that gave the order to leave while she was gone at the meeting. She sighed and turned to Murrue and asked, "Can give us a lift to Mahamul?"

Murrue turned to Kira and he gave a nod of approval. Captain Gladys was confused when she Kira gave a nod of approval before noticing his rank.

"Sure, we'll get you to Mahamul," answered Murrue. "But I think we need to make sure that the Argama has their Gundams back." Captain Gladys nodded in agreement; Murrue came on the intercom and instructed the Argama's Gundam pilots except Roux, Elle and Puru to head back to the Argama.

"Why can't you come back to the Argama?" whined Juddau as he held on to Roux's right arm.

Roux huffed in annoyance as she answered, "I'm on assignment with the Minerva; Captain Noa ordered us to stay on board with the Minerva until the Chairman no longer needed us." She yanked her arm out of Juddau's light grasp and began to shove Juddau to the ZZ. Juddau stood up and walked to the ZZ, where Bright was waiting for him so he could get back commanding the Argama. Once the ZZ and Hyaku Shiki returned to the Argama, the Archangel took the lead and journeyed towards Mahamul.

Once the Archangel and Argama made it to Mahamul, Captain Gladys made her way to the elevator and had thoughts running through her mind. She wondered why the Minerva would just up and leave before she and the Gundam pilots returned from the meeting. Those thoughts would have to wait until she got back on board the Minerva. After disembarking, she watched as the Impulse, Zeta, Gundam Mk II, Qubeley Mk II, Gaia and Chaos returned to the Minerva. The Argama got two prototype Marine Saber Mobile suits piloted by Yuzu Akihara and Momo Ashton. The Minerva did receive a Marine Saber as well; but Captain Gladys was instructed to keep out of Rey Zabarel's hands. Like Kira, the senator didn't trust Chairman Durandal one bit. The last Marine Saber stayed on the Archangel. The other two Windam pilots chose pilot the last two Marine Sabers instead of their Windams. The Mahamul base commander was surprised to see the Archangel at their base, but they restrained themselves from attacking it since they had Captain Gladys and the Minerva's other mobile suit pilots they had to return to the Minerva. Captain Gladys extended an invitation to Murrue and the crew of the Archangel to join them in reaching Gibraltar which Murrue accepted much to Kira's uneasiness. Kira was uneasy but the destruction of the Tsunami Guardians' underwater base made him consider the possibility that there maybe traitors within any ship. Murrue knew that Kira was uneasy about Captain Gladys's invitation and reassured him that the Archangel would leave the Minerva once they were close to Gibraltar.

Shinn was thinking about how he and other Gundam pilots from the Minerva, Argama and Archangel were going to work together despite the fact he was in ZAFT along with Luna, Stella and Sting. Chairman Durandal accepted their apology on the condition that they fight with the Minerva in which they accepted. Shinn had overheard that Captain Gladys was getting suspicious of the Chairman because he'd been giving the Minerva and her crew a lot special treatment. The only reason Shinn could think of for the special treatment, was to keep the Minerva from following the Archangel's path from the previous war. He had learned about the Archangel's journey from Chairwoman Ilene Kanaiver's records. Apparently Lacus Clyne told her about the Archangel's journey starting from ZAFT's attack on Heliopolis to the formation of the Three Ships Alliance. The thing that Chairman Durandal must've caught onto was that the Hawk of Endymion rejoined the Archangel and told them about the leaders' plan throw away their lives along with the other soldiers. The Archangel escaped and fought against the Alliance at Orb, the Mendel Colony and at Yakin Do Wei. Shinn could only think that Chairman Durandal was going to make sure that the Minerva wouldn't take up arms against him. Shinn thought he should keep an eye on Rey because he had been acting suspicious after he brought Stella on board the Minerva from his time as a prisoner on thee Girty Lue and Roux mentioned that she thought he was a Cyber-Newtype. To tell anyone the truth Shinn thought his mind was going to overload with all the things he had learned about and even gone through. Then Shinn took a deep breath clearing his mind of the information at least for the moment. All he wanted to think about was the mission ahead and protecting Stella like he promised. Chairman Durandal had given Athrun the Minerva's assignment while Athrun went to have a conference with him.

Murrue sighed as she gathered her thoughts; this assignment would be dangerous for them and the newly formed Gundam Peacekeeper Force. They were going to assault a pass called Lohengrin Gate and help cripple the Earth Forces supply line and help ZAFT's assault on Suez. At the briefing with the ZAFT commander in charge of the Mahamul base she and Bright learned that from ZAFT's past attacks had been beaten back because of a Gells-ghe mobile armor. This mission was going to be difficult if the Earth Forces put mobile armor into the defenses. But in order to show the people that the Archangel is there to end the war they at least had to make their presence known as peacekeepers. The mission would commence at 1300 hours tomorrow.

'This is it,' thought Murrue. 'we have prove ourselves in this fight. We're going to prove ourselves as peacekeepers.'


	6. Chapter 6

I wanted to do the battle with the mobile armor but thought decided not to. I'm sorry if you don't like it but I want to do a chapter where Stella reflects on what's happened so far.

Alone in a Cove: A Time for Reflection

Stella Loussier:

Here I am with Shinn in a cove after having Shinn dive in the ocean and save me from drowning. I apologized to Shinn and he just smiled weakly as he took a bandana from his pocket and put it on my ankle after wringing the water from it. After Shinn built a fire and both of us sat down with our backs to each other. While we sat there waiting to be rescued I began to reflect and think about where it started for me.

I don't remember where I was born in the Atlantic Federation; all I remember was that I was kidnapped by Blue Cosmos agents and taken to a laboratory somewhere in the Eurasian Federation. At that lab, I was brainwashed and tortured into thinking that Coordinators weren't human beings. I was forced to kill other kids my age when I was younger. I didn't have many emotions until the Armory One raid and I had met Shinn while walking towards the hangar where Sting, Auel and I stole Gaia, Chaos and Abyss. At the time we had no idea that the AEUG had arrived and fought along side ZAFT. I talked with Puru later and she had told me that she and her friends came from a different time called the Universal Century. Anyway, during the raid Shinn charged at me and had received help from Gundam Mk II before Auel said my block word and I got into a panic. Shinn charged at me and when the wall finally blew up and the vacuum of space sucked me out with Shinn closing in. Shinn chased after me but ran out of power. Even till now Shinn still wonders why I captured him instead of killing him even though I told him why I didn't kill him. After I had captured him, I began to warm up to Shinn; he didn't know about my block word yet it seemed that he knew how keep calm or at least feel safe. Shinn's first job with us on board the Girty Lue was when we helped ZAFT break up Junius Seven. Djbril found out that we helped ZAFT but let it go when Neo… I mean Mu La Flaga told him the benefits of helping ZAFT. To the Lunar Fleet, all of us had been put in for decorations and even asked that Shinn, the supposed "ZAFT defector," be put in for decorations as well. Djbril made sure everyone on the Girty Lue were put in for decorations, even Shinn. A week passed and Mu finally told us who really was. I was shocked to hear that he really wasn't Neo Roanoke and so were Sting and Auel. The crew of the Girty Lue had decided after debating on whither or not they should follow Mu, to help him out after they found out they were just going to be killed since Mu let Shinn live instead of killing him. I would've thought that they would abandon the Girty Lue and leave us to defend ourselves but they didn't. By the time all of us agreed to desert the Earth Forces, we had orders given to join the campaign of extermination. We were horrified when we heard that they were going to use nuclear weapons except Shinn; he was furious and stormed off to change and fight off the nuclear attack. Once we arrived in the PLANTS Colony Region, Shinn took off and rushed towards the battle with myself and my two other teammates, Mu, and other mobile suit pilots on the Girty Lue. When we arrived on the battlefield, nuclear missiles were already streaking towards the PLANTS; while most were getting shot down. We joined the heroic effort to save the PLANTS from being annihilated. After the dust settled the Earth Forces fleet was wiped out with no chance there were any survivors. Shinn and I linked up with the Minerva and Shinn rejoined the Minerva bringing me with him so he could protect me like he promised. Once the Gaia and Impulse were on board the Minerva, the Girty Lue joined us as we made our way to Earth so we could return Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha back to Orb before the Earth Forces destroyed her. After breaking through the Earth Forces' blockade we began a long battle with pirates and eventually the Earth Forces that pursued us and eventually gave up when we entered the atmosphere. After clearing the atmosphere, we landed near an Earth Forces surface fleet who engaged us as we landed. We fought that fleet and yet they continued to pursue us until we reached the boundary of Orb. Three Earth Alliance ships were stupid enough to try and engage us; but they were blasted by the Orb Secondary Escort Fleet. The fact that the three ships were trying to destroy us was an example that the captains were members of Logos and they were going to pursue us until we were eliminated. Once we reached the harbor at Onogoro Island, a lot of crewmen breathed a sigh of relief and wanted to go ashore. We were rewarded with shore leave courtesy of the Chief Representative for escorting her back to Orb. Most of the time in Orb was either spent at the shooting range, gazing at a memorial or with Kira Yamato and children he and Lacus Clyne were helping to take care of. Shinn and I stayed over for the night as their guests. But the night turned to hell when ZAFT Special forces decided go for an assassination attempt of the famous songstress. What they didn't expect was that we fought back along with the Desert Tiger, Andrew Waltfeld and the captain of the Archangel, Murrue Ramius. It looked like that we were winning until they retreated, brought out they're mobile suits and started shelling the shelter. Kira unleashed the Freedom and fought with mobile suits; Shinn wanted to join the Freedom, but the Freedom was the only mobile suit and Kira was it's pilot. Things looked hopeless and Kira was getting overpowered by the ASH Type mobile suits. They would've completely overpowered the Freedom had Zeta Gundam not come to the rescue. Roux and Kira quickly put down the Ash mobile suits and would've gotten information from them but they self-destructed to prevent capture. Shinn and I were hurried back to the Minerva due to the message we had to give Captain Gladys; we approached Captain Gladys with the dirty clothes we were stilling wearing. For both Shinn and I, it was rather embarrassing to give a report dirty, tired, and smell like you just came out of a gun battle. We hurried to leave Orb before the Alliance could ambush us. As we began to leave Orb, Captain Gladys had the crew on high alert and all mobile suit pilots to be ready to launch on a moment's notice. Lunamaria got a Murasame to pilot instead of her Blaze ZAKU Warrior. I guess she didn't want to be stuck on the deck of the Minerva like Rey would be now that the Minerva would be now that it would be moving along traveling on the ocean. Of course I too would be limited to fighting on the Minerva too but it didn't mean I wouldn't be able jump on other ships and cause much damage to them. Auel joined up with us so Sting and I weren't alone and the Minerva would have all three prototype mobile suits that were stole from them. Anyway, as we left Orb territory, an Earth Forces fleet attacked us as we were leaving; but we were ready for they're ambush. Shinn Luna, Sting, Auel, Rey and myself all launched from the Minerva fought off the mobile suits and were winning until they sent their Zamza-Zah mobile armor against us. We tried to overpower it with brute force but it only left us about ready to fall back to the Minerva when the AEUG ship that appeared during the defense of the PLANTS appeared again and fired their most powerful weapon at the Earth Alliance fleet destroying most of the fleet and catching the Zamza-Zah off guard. They launched their own mobile suit and it looked like the Zeta Gundam with more armor and firepower. Some of the Orb ships opened fire on the mobile armor on orders from Chief Representative Athha to support and let us back into Orb along with the AEUG ship that helped us out at the PLANTS. Once the Earth Alliance fleet withdrew what they had left, we returned back into Orb territory, got repairs and escaped quietly in the night. Shinn wanted to find the remaining Earth Forces fleet but Captain Gladys overruled him and said that we had to report to Carpentaria. While at Carpentaria Sting, Auel and myself met with Chairman Durandal over video conference. He was willing to overlook our theft of the Gaia, Chaos and Abyss if we joined the crew of the Minerva and would recognize that we were still Earth Alliance soldiers supporting ZAFT. I accepted the Chairman's terms without hesitation because Shinn was on board the Minerva and I wanted to protect him like he was protecting me like he promised. Sting also accepted the Chairman's terms but Auel was suspicious of the Chairman despite accepting his terms. The Chairman gave orders to have the Murasame that Lunamaria began piloting get upgraded with equipment that was supposed to be used for upgrading the Zeta Gundam. Chairman Durandal seemed to be a giving mood because he gave the upgrades for the Gundam Mk II and Qubeley Mk II to the ZZ and Hyaku Shiki after Captain Bright Noa apologized after the fiasco one of his pilots caused. We spent two days in port after getting orders to head to the Persian Gulf and support the efforts to break the Alliance's control in Eurasia by attacking the supply lines to Suez. We were joined by Athrun Zala, a mobile suit pilot from last war who defected, fought alongside Orb against the Alliance and joined the Three Ships Alliance lead by Lacus Clyne. Shinn looked at Athrun with contempt, thinking of him as nothing but a once great pilot who betrayed ZAFT. After receiving Athrun into the Minerva, we departed after the second and headed straight into a battle already being fought between the Earth Forces and the legendary Archangel and it's Orb supporters. Captain Gladys was surprised to see that the Archangel was fighting the Earth Forces but gave us orders to get ready for combat since we were helping them out and if they hadn't discovered the Earth Forces' frontline base it would've meant trouble for ZAFT and Carpentaria. During the battle, a group of fifteen Earth Forces deserters boarded and joined the Archangel crew. This odd but I was thankful that we weren't the only ones who deserted the Earth Forces. During the battle, Shinn and I completely destroyed the base. Shinn went further and killed the soldiers who survived and also helped reunite civilians who were forced to build the base. The local people were grateful that the Archangel and ZAFT helped kick the Earth Forces off their island. They were disturbed when they saw both Shinn and I in Earth Forces pilot uniforms. Shinn explained that he was originally from ZAFT and he had kept the pilot uniform from his time in captivity; he also told them that he got me to join ZAFT and turn on the Alliance for the abuse they did to me in which I gladly did. The people accepted Shinn's explanation and invited the crews of the Minerva, Argama and Archangel to celebratory feast to their appreciation. During the feast, some of the workers recognized Major Yuzu Akihara and the fourteen deserters with her and warmly thanked them for providing help to their families when they were forced to work on the base. After departing the island and contacting Carpentaria, confirming contact with the Archangel… I mean Angel Peacekeepers, we departed to Africa for secret meeting with the Tsunami Guardians. Many of us didn't know much about them until Yuzu Akihara lead us to the Tsunami Guardians for a meeting with leaders of the Tsunami Guardians so they could research all of our Gundams and they proposed an alliance between the Gundam pilots and even the Tsunami Guardians. Almost everyone agreed to the alliance except Shinn; he hesitated when Senator Keigo Akihara proposed it. Shinn finally agreed to the alliance after the senator expressed that the alliance would work to end the war. Senator Akihara even proposed the name of the alliance to be called the Gundam Peacekeepers. Unfortunately the meeting was cut short when a traitor relayed the coordinates of the Tsunami Guardians underwater base. The traitor was dealt with and we escaped the base through a long underwater tunnel to the ocean after setting the base to self-destruct and destroying anything we couldn't carry with us. The Archangel had to carry the mobile suit's the Tsunami Guardians were giving to the Minerva and Argama as well to the Archangel. The chief mechanic complained about having to carry more than the maximum amount of mobile suits. Within a day and a half we reached Mahamul with our payload to deliver for the Minerva and Argama. Senator Akihara had some of his pilots join the crews of the Archangel, Minerva and Argama. The senator's daughter joined with the crew of the Argama while her childhood friend joined up with the Minerva. The rest of the pilots split up between the Archangel, Takemikazumichi and the Argama. The Minerva was already filled to capacity of the mobile suits it could carry. Captain Noa was pleased to receive fresh troops on his ship. We rested for a day while the three captains were getting briefed on ZAFT's objective help an oppressed town under the iron fist of the Alliance. The next day, the Minerva along with the Archangel proceeded to join the main formation with ZAFT forces while the Argama made a wide right flank to join with incoming Tsunami Guardian amphibious assault forces into the town. The plan was to debut the Tsunami Guardians and the newly formed Gundam Peacekeepers. Most of us had different roles in the engagement; I led a squad of BuCUEs in the frontal attack along with support from Murasames from the Archangel and from the Takemikazumichi at port in Mahamul. The Earth Forces were surprised to see Orb Murasames and Astrays fighting against them when Orb was supposed to be allying itself with the Earth Forces. The Minerva made the first after the Earth Forces launched a lot of their mobile suits and their Gells-Ghe mobile armor. Captain Gladys fired the Tannhauser at a cluster of Windams but the Gells-ghe blocked the shot as the BuCUEs and I tried sneaking past the mobile armor but it caught us and we got pinned down until the Murasames opened fire on the mobile armor while we concentrated our efforts to push towards the Lohengrin cannon. Athrun and Rey concentrated on drawing the mobile suits away from the cannon. Athrun had the BuCUEs and I focus on getting the Gells-ghe away from it's position. We changed our focus on luring away the mobile armor from it's post so Shinn could get close enough and destroy the cannon. The Earth Forces would've overpowered us if the Tsunami Guardians hadn't launched their attack on the power plant and caught the Earth Forces off guard. Some of the mobile suits turned towards the power plant they couldn't afford to lose. When those forces turned away we regained the upper hand and began to overpower them. Right on time, Shinn made his appearance and quickly disposed of any Dagger mobile suits in his way. The Lohengrin cannon began to descend back into safety and Shinn made his way to the cannon stabbing the last Dagger mobile suit, killing the pilot and shooting the lifeless mobile suit down the closing hatch with the Impulse's Vulcan guns. The Dagger exploded once the hatch closed, destroying the Lohengrin cannon, the base and everyone still unlucky to still be in the facility. Once the people saw that the Lohengrin cannon was destroyed, they began their revolt and the Earth Forces soldiers left behind were overpowered and beaten to death by the people. Captain Ramius was horrified to see the people executing Earth Forces soldiers a chance to turn on their military and fight against them. Shinn and I met with the people of the town who were grateful for the assistance in throwing the Alliance out of Mahamul. Some of them were surprised to see Orb mobile suits fighting alongside ZAFT despite the fact that Orb signed the treaty with Earth Forces. Chief Representative Athha met with some of the people as she inspected the situation on the town. She saw the dead Earth Forces soldiers who were brutally executed by the people for the atrocities they committed. All she could do was muster a smile to mask the disgust she felt for what the people were doing to the Earth Forces soldiers. She later told Lacus and I that those people were no better than the Earth Forces soldiers who oppressed them. Lacus agreed with the Chief Representative because she saw the same thing too. We left the remainder of the operation to the Mahamul forces and left for Istanbul.

That led Shinn and I to where we are now. I wanted a little time to myself and I left early in morning to let Shinn sleep in. I left him a note telling him where I'd be and asked him to meet me later. I gazed at the ocean for a couple of hours and began to dance like a ballerina along the edge of a cliff. Shinn was nearby riding his motorcycle towards where we were to meet. Unfortunately I wasn't paying attention and I fell in the ocean. Shinn had to jump into to the ocean and save me. Shinn wouldn't be able to contact Sting and Lunamaria because they were renting a jet ski for themselves and planned to be out of contact for the better part of the day. They were going to spend time jet skiing and being alone in a little cove. I thought they just wanted time alone because they are constantly watched by Captain Gladys and Deputy Captain Trine. A lot of things were happening within ZAFT that a were cause to be careful with interactions between soldiers of both genders. It seems that Commander Dearka Elsman was sneaking some girl he's been dating for two years into the base he was at and he got sent back into space. Things were really crazy within ZAFT and it seemed to be over something… oh what's the word I'm thinking of? Anyway I thought this rather stupid and that Chairman Durandal needed to focus more on the war rather than worrying that soldiers were mixing their personal love life and their professional life. After spending four hours alone together, Sting and Lunamaria found us and took us back to the harbor. From the look on Sting and Lunamaria's faces, I'd say they had a really good time alone together. Oh… Shinn and I had a really good time alone as well. Unfortunately for you guys, I'm not gonna tell u what happened between Shinn and I nor with Sting and Lunamaria.


	7. Chapter 7

This chapter should be a decent one… I hope. This chapter will probably seem like the third episode from the second season of Gundam 00. Keep reading and reviewing please. Please note that one of the children from the facility mixes English and Spanish together in a sentence.

Stella's Capture and Shinn's Heroic Rescue

Djbril was getting even more frustrated now that the Gundam Peacekeepers had made it's presence known as well as the Tsunami Guardians showing it's face after all the cowardly battles they fought the Earth Forces. There had to be something he could do to break up this alliance of Gundam pilots and the Tsunami Guardians… something that could turn the tide of Logos' campaign of slaughtering the space monsters and their traitorous Natural barbarian allies. He looked at the profiles of the three Extended pilots from the Girty Lue and was looking for something redeeming for one of them he could take back. He looked at Stella's profile and saw she was the strongest of the three Extended pilots. Her brute strength made her a perfect candidate to kidnap. There was one major problem to his plan and that was according to a spy on the Minerva, that she was in love with the strongest pilot on the Minerva, Shinn Asuka. He had three options: 1. Kill him in his sleep; 2. Kill him by laying a trap in case he decided to be the hero and rescue her; and 3. Have every mobile suit pilot swarm him and overwhelm him with a lot of firepower. …The second option seemed like better option considering that this Shinn Asuka would most likely try to be the hero and save the damsel in distress. Djbril nodded his head acknowledging his plan to laying a trap for the Minerva's hero. He needed to make plans right away. Either way he wanted Stella's unnatural strength and some filthy Coordinator who lost his slut mother, whorish sister and barbarian father wasn't going to keep him from what he wanted. 'But then again,' thought Djbril, 'I could use this space monster to destroy the Coordinators. I could use his hate, anger, all that destructive energy and destroy Orb with it. The Seirans still allow Coordinators to live in their borders and I can use one Coordinator to destroy them all. Then I'll kill him and the girl after the space monsters are all but extinct and forgotten.' With his plan thought and ready to go, he dialed a number to his agents on board the Neo-Dominion and gave them instructions to get Yuna Roma Seiran or his agents to do his dirty work for them. Djbril's plan was simple: Capture the Extended girl and wait for her Coordinator lover to show up rescue her and then either kill him or overpower him with sheer numbers.

Earth Forces Mobile Assault Ship Neo-Dominion

"Adam, we've got orders from Lord Djbril," William told his counterpart.

"What are they?" asked William curious. "Are we gonna eliminate Captain Nakamura ?"

"No Lord Djbril wants us to have Yuna Roma Seiran have his forces to capture the Extended girl Stella Loussier and a Coordinator pilot from the Minerva," answered William

"You mean that cutie that betrayed us to follow some brainless Coordinator?" inquired Adam.

"Yes, the cutie who betrayed us to ZAFT," answered William.

"But why does Lord Djbril want us to capture a stupid and talent less Coordinator?" William sarcastically asked Adam.

"How should I know what Lord Djbril wants?" shot back Adam. "We just need to do what we're told and that's that." William nodded in agreement and made the call to Yuna and arranged a meeting between him, Adam and Yuna.

Unknowing to William and Adam, Judy was listening to their conversation. Judy was now helping her best friend by spying on William and Adam for her and the Tsunami Guardians. Judy had sent a message back to Yuzu after Yuzu sent her a message to leave the Neo-Dominion. Judy had expressed in her last message that she would help Yuzu and help fight together like during their childhood days when they fought against bullies. Judy muffed the sound of her recording device being turned off to keep the two Logos bastards from knowing that she had become an informant. Yuzu had told her about the Gundam Peacekeepers and that the Extendeds joined ZAFT and the Minerva. Judy was surprised to hear that the three Extendeds from the Girty Lue would just screw the Earth Forces and join the enemy. But they were people who followed their heart.

ZAFT Trans-Atmospheric Battleship, Minerva

Stella was asleep on Shinn's bed as always after performing maintenance checks on the Gaia. She had seen the doctor about her constant tiredness after combat and/or performing her regular duties. She wasn't the only one who experienced the repeated tiredness. Sting and Auel also experienced tiredness after just performing their duties and prolonged stays in a combat situation. The ship's doctor thought it might be withdrawal symptoms from not using the capsules on the Girty Lue. The doctor predicted that the withdrawal symptoms would cease within a week. Shinn was at the firing range practicing with a pistol while thoughts ran through his mind. Rey had followed him to the shooting range hoping to talk to him and begin to weave the Chairman's poison into Shinn. The Chairman wanted Shinn under his control and Rey was his messenger. Rey wasn't able to get to talk to Shinn alone because Shinn was always around Stella, the Extended girl, was a distraction and needed to go soon; Sting and Auel would be dealt with soon after Stella was either dead or captured. Shinn fired off two clips and set the pistol he used on a shelf after cleaning it and setting the safety glasses and noise cancellers. Rey knew that Shinn was going to back to their room and be with the girl that distracted him from their plan. Durandal and Rey wanted Shinn to be their sword and wipe out all opposition even neutral nations that resisted the coming day when the Destiny Plan would be unleashed.

A week later, an Orb expeditionary fleet went and joined up with the Neo-Dominion so they could deal with the new threat from this new Gundam Peacekeeper force and the cowardly Tsunami Guardians. Once the major threat from the Gundam Peacekeepers and Tsunami Guardians was eliminated, Logos could finally make their move to destroy the Coordinators and even destroy the so-called neutral nations that secretly allied themselves with the PLANTS. Yuna met with William and Adam to discuss Lord Djbril's plan to capture Stella and lay a trap for the Minerva's ace pilot. Yuna didn't understand what was going on but agreed to go along with the plan.

The next day the Minerva, Archangel and the Argama left port from Dioqua in order to reach Gibraltar. Captain Gladys had a bad feeling that the Alliance was gonna target them again. Murrue had the same feeling too; she experienced the feeling when ZAFT had chased the Archangel half way around the world. The three captains agreed to arrange a formation to ensure a safe journey to Gibraltar. After the three ships departed Dioqua they got into their defense formation and headed towards Gibraltar. None of them were aware of the trap lying in wait for them.

Dardanelles Straits

Yuna had a nervous look on his face as he was on board the Neo-Dominion. The two Logos agents had sent a small squad of soldiers to Yuna's flagship and forced him on the Neo-Dominion to ensure that he wouldn't try to double cross Lord Djbril's campaign of extermination. Yuna would be William and Adam's hostage indefinitely once the Gundam Peacekeepers and Tsunami Guardians were also exterminated as well. Logos definitely wanted the planet's oceans to run red with the blood of the Coordinators and those Naturals who were found guilty of betraying their own species. William and Adam brandished a pistol in a hip holster ready to shoot the foolish Orb ruler when his usefulness had expired. Orb was going to get wiped off the face of the Earth as well ZAFT and the traitorous Naturals with **their** blood staining the ocean as well. Many people on Earth had tried to fight the Earth Forces cruel efforts to wipe out Coordinators and most of them ended up getting killed as traitors to their species. Coordinators went to any nation that would shelter them from the blood thirsty Earth Forces soldiers. Yuna was trying every thing he could do to minimize the entry of Coordinators into Orb territory in order to show the Earth Alliance that they were on the winning side; but with Morgenroete's chief of engineering encouraging the people to accept Coordinators into Orb, it was difficult. Yuna's thoughts were interrupted when an alarm sounded warning the combined fleet of the three enemies.

"Captain Nakamura we've got three incoming ships," reported Judy as read the radar screen, "identified as the Minerva, Archangel and one unidentified ship deployed in a defensive formation."

Captain Nakamura, sitting at her captain's seat ignoring the idiot Orb leader and the two blood thirsty Logos agents talk as she had to maintain her professional look. Secretly, she wanted to shoot the Logos agents like her former Deputy Captain, Yuzu Akihara. Yuzu's replacement was another Logos agent by the name of Sergei Mendez. Born in Moscow, he was to born to Spanish father and Russian mother. Good with tactics and able to be flexible when the tide of battle changes, Sergei can constantly adjust parts of a battle strategy to make the overall plan a success. An Extended that was kidnapped from his parents during a family gathering in Paris; he is the only Extended to have his memories intact because he left mementos when anticipated his memory was going to be erased. Even to this day, Djbril and the handlers at Lodonia have no idea that Sergei still retains his memories and that he hates Logos with a vengeance.

"Deputy Captain Mendez," Captain Nakamura said to Sergei snapping him out of his trance. "Deputy Captain, we need you at your station." Sergei sighed and nodded as he got to his station.

"All hands Level 1 battle stations!" exclaimed Sergei. "Activate Gottfrieds, load tubes 1 through 6 with Korinthos load tubes 7 through 12 Sledgehammers. Ready Valiants and Igelstellungs!" Sergei made an angry glance at William and Adam before getting back to his duties. The Neo-Dominion's weapons were activated and focusing on their targets, the Gundam Peacekeepers.

"Target the Minerva!" ordered Captain Nakamura.

"But we have our…" Adam began to protest before getting cut off by Captain Nakamura.

"Stow it, Ensign Jacobson!" Captain Nakamura exclaimed sternly. Adam looked at Captain Nakamura in disgust as he turned to his station.

Yuna didn't want to be on the Neo-Dominion but William and Adam still on the bridge he couldn't leave during the battle. Yuna made sure that he followed the directions of the two bloody thirsty Logos agents and set the trap in place. Mitsuki was anxious to get some payback on the traitor who ordered her mobile suit's sabotage; Johan couldn't care less on who got killed as long as he got to enjoy the thrill of competing against other Earth Alliance mobile suit pilots to see who could kill the most enemy pilots in battle. Michael just wanted to kill… plan and simple; he didn't care who the enemy was as long as the battle didn't take too long and so long he could get back to his game in progress.

Orb Mobile Assault ship Archangel

"Captain Ramius, we've got a fleet of ten Earth Alliance ships and about sixteen Orb ships," reported Lacus. This got Murrue's attention when Lacus reported that Orb ships were mixed in with an Earth Alliance fleet.

She sighed and quickly gathered her thoughts before sitting up and giving her orders.

"All hands Level One Battle Stations!" exclaimed Murrue as she regained her composure.

"Level One Battle Stations!" repeated Yuzu as she took over the role as the Deputy Captain on the Archangel at the request her father. "Activate Igelstellungs, ready Gottfrieds One and Two, ready Valiants, load tubes One through Six with Wombats, load tubes Seven through Twelve with Sledgehammers, set Helldarts on Standby ready to fire on my mark!" Murrue looked at Yuzu and noticed she was organized like her last Deputy Captain, Natarile Badgeral when executing defense orders.

ZAFT Trans-Atmospheric Battleship, Minerva

"From the looks of it I'd say the Archangel is readying for another brawl with the Earth Forces again," observed Arthur.

Captain Gladys sighed and also gave orders to her crew.

"Lower the bridge," ordered Captain Gladys. "Go to Condition Red."

"Yes ma'am," acknowledged Meyrin as she tapped commands on her keyboard to lower the bridge and she switched to the ship COM system. "Going to Condition Red, going to Condition Red; all pilots board your machines and standby."

Once the bridge was secured below deck, Arthur took over and ordered their countermeasures.

"Activate CIWS, Tristans and Isodle," ordered Arthur, "load missile tubes One through Six with Parsifals, load tubes Seven through Twelve with Dispars."

"Have the Impulse, Savior and Murasame Rouge launch and provide aerial cover from the sky," ordered Captain Gladys. "Have the Gaia on the deck on point defense with Blaze ZAKU."

"Understood Captain," Stella acknowledged before ending transmission with the bridge. Stella sighed in uneasiness; she didn't want to work with Rey. There was something about Rey that made her uneasy… no it wasn't it, she just wanted to fight alongside Shinn. But… she would listen to Captain Gladys and do what she was told.

On the bridge, Captain Gladys received word from the Argama that they readied their defenses for oncoming attack. The captain then took a quick breath and ordered the group to open fire on the combined fleet and try to punch a hole through the fleet. It wasn't going to be easy with the sheer number of surface ships and the possibility that the Earth Forces might've developed mobile suits for underwater combat. For Captain Gladys it was either charge through and make a quick dash to Gibraltar or duke it out with enemy and risk damaging Orb's military even further. The battle began when Orb forces launched their mobile suits and opened fire on the three ships with scatter shells. The Minerva moved in front of the Archangel to cover it while they dove into the water. Archangel had to change their tactics because unlike the Minerva, the bridge of the Archangel was fixed and couldn't move down a deck to shelter itself. Murrue and the Archangel crew would use the Valiants and disable the Orb ships without having to kill any Orb soldiers. Shinn thought Kira's idea had softened them up too much but he hoped that once the ships were disabled they would give up and stay out of the battle. Shinn watched as Stella went to the catapult in Gaia. Like Stella, he too was uneasy about her working with Rey but he hoped that Rey would work with her.

Earth Forces Mobile Assault Ship Neo-Dominion

Adam and William saw that their target had deployed from the Minerva; William turned to Adam and he gave a slight nod and keyed a secret message to the Windams lying in wait. The message read: "Target One has launched; capture Target One. Leave Target Two alone and slaughter the rest." Adam quickly hid his PDA. Captain Nakamura, however, saw what Adam was doing and said, "Once we're done with our mission, I'll deal with you later about having communication devices on the bridge."

"Unlike you Captain, who doesn't know when to learn her place, I was carrying out orders from Lord Djbril," snapped William. Captain Nakamura shot William and Adam both a dirty look in response to their comment.

"I have no intention of joining Logos," Captain Nakamura said to both Logos agents. "Never have and I never will join Logos."

"You have no choice," said Adam, "otherwise you'll lose command of this ship. Either you're with Logos or you're with those space monsters who have to be slaughtered."

The ship shook as the battle began and both sides engaged each other in battle. Captain Nakamura noticed that the Archangel was missing from the formation.

"Captain, a majority of the Orb Fleet has been immobilized," reported Sergei.

"What, how?" asked Captain Nakamura surprised.

"I don't know," answered Sergei.

"What do you know mean you don't know?" demanded Adam. "You're supposed to know everything once you're in battle!"

"Shut the hell you bloody thirsty bastard!" countered Sergei as he remembered to keep his attitude in check before pulling out his pistol.

"We'll worry about shooting each other later," said Captain Nakamura as she pointed to the battle, "but first we have to destroy the enemy."

"And capture one of the traitors," added William. Captain Nakamura and Sergei looked at William confused as William explained that he and Adam had orders from Djbril to capture the Gaia and it's pilot. This would lead to Target Two to try be a hero and rescue Gaia's pilot and then he would be captured and forced in the service of Logos to wipe out the Coordinators. Captain Nakamura was uneasy about this plan. She thought that they should make sure that the second target was killed to ensure that no one would try to rescue the traitor; but the Logos agents threatened to put her in brig if she didn't obey the plan.

"Heads up we've got Murasames and new Astray Shrikes," said Athrun as he read off the readout on his radar screen.

"Man they're really pulling the stops to kill us," remarked Lunamaria.

"I really think that they're being controlled by those Logos guys Mu warned us about," said Kira.

"I agree with Kira," said Sai as he launched from the central catapult of the Minerva. "There's no way Orb would attack us unless someone is controlling them."

"Alright, enough with the chatting and what ifs," said Shinn as he launched from the central catapult, "let's just get through these guys and get away while we can." Everyone agreed as they launched from their respective carriers.

The battle, already in progress seemed to going smoothly until a squad of Windams silently crept up the side of the Minerva, waiting for the Gaia to move to the edge and have it's back turned to them. As fortune would have it Stella did move toward the commando Windams and she had her back to them. The commandos made their move and captured the Gaia and Stella. Rey saw the Gaia get captured and pretended to not notice; he would just lie to Shinn and say that Stella was killed and then he could take advantage of Shinn's grief and take control of Shinn. Unknown to Rey, Luna passed by and also noticed the Gaia's capture. 'Shinn's not going to be happy when he hears that Stella got captured,' thought Luna as grimaced uneasy. Two hours passed before the three ships managed to break through the combined fleet; when Shinn returned to the Minerva, he breathed a sigh of relief and began looking around for Stella hoping to spend some alone time with her. Rey was about to step forward and lie to Shinn telling him that Stella was killed when Luna beat him and spoke up.

"Shinn," Luna started softly and nervously, "S-Stella was… she was captured during the battle."

"SHE WHAT?" roared Shinn as his eyes widened in shock.

"Forget about her Shinn," Rey said calmly as he stepped forward and put his hand on Shinn's shoulder. "Besides we have to reach Gibraltar for our next assignment and await…"

"To hell with getting to Gibraltar," interrupted Shinn as he stepped back from Rey and got back on the Impulse as he got it ready for launch on the catapult.

'I'll force my way into that Earth Forces fleet get them to tell where Stella is,' thought Shinn as ran a check on his systems.

Captain Gladys came on the visual COM and said, "Shinn I can't permit you to leave the ship."

"But Captain we can't just leave Stella behind to those monsters in the Alliance," protested Shinn.

"I know that but we have to find someplace to hide ourselves for the time being," replied Captain Gladys.

Shinn was upset at Captain Gladys's last comment but he had no choice but follow her order… for the time being.

Earth Alliance Extended Research Facility, Lodonia

Djbril walked into the viewing room above where Stella was being held. He saw, on his way up to the viewing room, that some of the soldiers and handlers had black-eyes and even some had busted lips from trying to get the prisoner under control. Stella was bound tightly and secure so she couldn't get away. Stella had cuts and bruises on her face from the handlers restraining her. The handlers wanted to get her back on the drugs and hypnosis treatments but Djbril told them to give the traitor's lover 72 hours before restoring the control they had over her. Djbril noticed that Stella was still in her flight suit; he wondered why Stella chose to be a traitor to her species by following a space monster. 'It doesn't matter,' thought Djbril as he observed Stella sitting there propped up in the chair looking helpless, 'we'll get two useful puppets to use in our campaign. Once their usefulness is done then we'll throw them away.'

"Excuse me Lord Djbril," said one of Djbril's servants, "I have two Earth Forces soldiers who wish to see you."

"Bring them in," Djbril ordered his servant. The servant bowed and went away to bring the soldiers. The two soldiers came in and Djbril recognized them as the two agents he placed in the Neo-Dominion as Adam Winchell and William Jacobson.

"Welcome, welcome Adam and William," Djbril greeted his agents warmly. "Please come and sit. Is there anything else to report?"

The Logos agents sat down as directed by Djbril and began to make their report.

"Lord Djbril you need to replace the bridge staff," began William, "especially Captain Nakamura."

"Is there a reason for this request?" Djbril asked kind of confused by William.

"The bridge staff doesn't follow our orders," answered Adam. "We've had a couple of chances to destroy the Minerva and at least one chance to destroy the traitors on board the Girty Lue."

"I see," replied Djbril as he leaned back on his chair and listened to his two faithful agents.

ZAFT Trans-atmospheric Battleship Minerva

"I'm sorry Shinn," Captain Gladys said to Shinn as she saw the shock on his face to her response. "But we can't go looking for her. We have orders from headquarters to keep on course to Gibraltar. They've assured me that they'll look for Stella."

Shinn stormed off in anger wanting to save Stella. Captain Gladys sighed in frustration, understanding Shinn's frustration of wanting to go and rescue Stella. She thought of something she could do for Shinn without getting him in trouble for going against orders from Headquarters. She knew Shinn was going to go rescue her regardless of their orders to make it to Gibraltar. Then Captain Gladys had an idea; she sent a message to Captain Ramius and see if Commander La Flaga could help out Shinn, since Commander La Flaga was in Logos and with his knowledge Shinn could find Stella.

Orb Mobile Assault Ship Archangel

"I think we should help the kid," said Mu at the small meeting of officers. "Besides we can't leave a Gundam pilot behind to be tortured and turned back into a weapon for the use of Logos."

Kira agreed considering that Stella helped to protect Lacus and was a fellow pilot in the Gundam Peacekeeper force. Yuzu produced a data pad that had blue prints on certain Earth Alliance facilities. She handed the data pad to Murrue and she looked at a blueprint of one facility when Mu turned and asked Yuzu, "Hey Yuzu, does that data pad have a blue of the lab at Lodonia?"

"Uh, yeah it should have the blue prints," answered Yuzu. "It should also have security details for the place as well." Yuzu motioned Murrue to return her data pad back to her which Murrue did.

"Then we're all in agreement?" asked Lacus.

"Yeah, let's help with the rescue," chimed in Cagalli. Everyone was in agreement; no one on the Archangel was going to Stella behind to Logos.

Back on the Minerva, Captain Gladys received the message from Murrue that they would help Shinn rescue Stella. She smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. Right now she wanted to get rest from the day's disaster.

"Forget it Rey!" snarled Shinn as he threw Rey's arm off his shoulder.

"You have to forget about her and focus on our mission," said Rey trying to be rational.

Rey's last statement caused Shinn to snap as he channeled a lot of physical power into his fist and punched Rey knocking him on the ground. Everyone in the lounge saw Rey falling to the ground and the angry look in Shinn's eyes. They could see the blazing fire in his eyes before he stormed off back to his room for an idea he had. He got in his room and searched for the Earth Forces flight suit he still had from his time on the Girty Lue and remembered it was in his locker in the pilot's locker room. He quickly hurried to the locker room and to his locker but not before grabbing the Earth Forces patches he had in his foot locker. He was going to sneak into the Earth Forces with pilot uniform he had, put the patches he took off and put them back on. His plan was simple: sneak aboard an Earth Forces ship, gather information on Stella's whereabouts, find and rescue Stella and destroy the facility she was kept prisoner. There was one problem to his plan. If he approached the Earth Forces in the Impulse, they'd shoot first and ask questions later. He thought about how to solve that problem and it was a tough problem to solve.

'Hey wait a minute,' thought Shinn as he wondered about the Archangel's mobile suits, 'doesn't the Archangel still have one of those Earth Forces mobile suits? I'll go to the Archangel and ask if they still have one of those mobile suits.' Shinn nodded and quickly finished reapplying the patches and quickly changed into the uniform and borrowed Lunamaria's Murasame Rouge and went to the Archangel.

"Captain, Shinn just took off in Luna's Murasame," Vino reported to Captain Gladys.

"He what?" asked Arthur in surprise. "Do we know where he's…"

Captain Gladys cut him off and said with a little grin her on face, "He's going to the Archangel to and see if they'll help him rescue Stella."

"I wish I was that brave and crazy," commented Arthur.

"Well people do crazy things for those they love and care about," said Captain Gladys before turning to Roux.

"Roux, I want you to back up Shinn when he escapes with Stella," ordered Captain Gladys.

"You really think he's going to rescue Stella?" asked Roux with her eyes closed.

"Knowing Shinn," answered Captain Gladys, "he's not going to leave without Stella and there's going to be a trail of destruction ."

Roux opened her eyes and walked out of the captain's quarters to pilot's locker room and changed into her flight suit. Captain Gladys had offered to replace her AEUG pilot suit with a ZAFT pilot suit in which she politely declined. Once Roux boarded Z Gundam, Captain Gladys came on visual COM.

"Roux, I want you wait 30 minutes after he launches from the Archangel," instructed Captain Gladys. "It's possible that the Archangel go on the rescue mission with him to provide him support."

"Roger Captain Gladys," acknowledged Roux.

Orb Mobile Assault Ship Archangel

En route to Earth Forces Research Facility, Lodonia Laboratory

"Please I need your help," pleaded Shinn as he fell on his knees before Murrue and Mu.

"Well considering that you and Stella helped in protecting Lacus," began Murrue, "we had planned on helping on anyway."

Shinn looked at Murrue and saw she had a smile on her face and he stood up and gave a curt nod of appreciation. He breathed a sigh of relief and then a thought came to him as they began to take off.

"Hey do you guys still have an Earth Forces mobile suit left from when you got those deserters?" asked Shinn.

Mu pondered Shinn's question when Yuzu overheard him and answered quickly, "We still have one Windam left in the mobile suit bay."

Shinn thought about his plan of getting into an Earth Forces base and the last Windam fit the bill for getting into the Earth Forces ranks without a hitch.

"I'll need to use it," requested Shinn.

Mu and Murrue looked at each other and smiled at each other. Murrue then turned to Shinn and said, "We figured you'd say that. I'll talk to Mr. Murdoch and he'll get the Windam back up and ready for you to use."

"Do you mind if I bring it back?" asked Shinn as he was about ready to head to the mobile suit bay.

"Kid, you can trash it for all we care," responded Mu. "Besides its taking up space in our hangar and we some space in the hangar."

Shinn smiled a little bit but then turned to the elevator to help with fixing the Windam he would use to enter Earth Forces territory and rescue Stella. Mu took one look at Shinn and gave a big sigh.

"Man, when that kid intends to do something, nothing stops him," commented Mu.

"Kinda reminds me of you," replied Murrue, "and all the crazy flirty stuff you pulled."

"Well at least I didn't have a short fuse like Shinn," added Mu. Murrue sighed and had to agree with that.

In the mobile suit bay, Shinn worked with Murdoch to get the Windam ready for it's final mission. Murdoch programmed the self-destruct to go off remotely on Shinn's command; Shinn worked on programming the OS of the Windam to be compatible with Extended pilots. It was a crazy idea he had but it was worth putting his life at risk to save Stella; he loved her and would give his life to see that she was safe from harm. He remembered Stella training him to pilot a mobile suit using the OS for Extendeds and it was hard for him at first but he had remembered the little tweaks he made to the OS so it would be compatible for both Coordinators and Extendeds alike. Shinn was able to remember the tweaks he made programmed them into the Windam's OS. Murdoch was amazed at Shinn working in the Windam's cockpit; it reminded him of Kira, when he was always busy in the cockpit of the Strike making adjustments to the Strike's OS after a battle or maintenance on the Strike. Those thoughts left a grin that Shinn noticed as he took a break from working on the Windam's OS.

"Why are you grinning?" Shinn asked Murdoch, who quickly wiped the grin off his face.

"Oh no reason," answered Murdoch. "You just remind me of Kira, when he piloted the Strike. He always had a serious look on his face when he was working on the Strike" Shinn felt embarrassed, but shook his head and went to the lounge to grab something to drink. 'I can't take a break now,' thought Shinn as he began turning back to the Windam but felt his fingers ache from all the typing he did on the Windam's keyboard. Murdoch noticed Shinn was coming back; he turned and walked toward Shinn and stopped him from taking another step.

"Hey I don't have time for breaks when…" Shinn was cut off by Murdoch when he began speaking.

"We know you want to go rescue that girl from the Earth Forces," began Murdoch, "but I don't think you want to be tired from working too much.

"Leave the rest of the work to us and we'll finish the final touches while you go rest awhile we finish up," finished Murdoch as shooed Shinn away from the mobile suit hangar.

Shinn protested but listened to Murdoch and went to lounge to grab something drink and went to the crew's quarters and took a nap while Murdoch and the rest of the crew mechanics finished off reassembling the Windam's feet. It took some doing but the Windam's feet were assembled from spare parts from the Strike. Murdoch woke Shinn up from his nap and revealed the Windam to him. Shinn nodded in approval of the work. Murdoch nodded in approval as well and handed the remote detonator to Shinn.

"The Windam's rigged to blow when you want it go," said Murdoch, "just make sure you and the lady aren't in the blast radius."

"Don't worry about that," said Shinn. "Once I get Stella, we'll recover the Gaia and make our escape."

"And I'll lead the diversion," said Kira ready in his pilot suit along with Andrew Waltfeld and a few Orb Murasame pilots.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Shinn a little worried.

"You worry about rescuing Stella," answered Lacus as walked into the hangar, "she is a nice person and it wouldn't be right if we didn't rescue her from Logos." Kira gave a curt nod in agreement.

"You worry about rescuing Stella and we'll worry about the Earth Forces mobile suits," said Kira. Shinn nodded and boarded the Windam. The launch door opened and Shinn launched from the Archangel. He mouthed the plan to himself silently. He was supposed to find a convoy of Windams nearby and join the formation; Shinn would make the excuse that he was returning from a black-ops mission against Eurasian rebels in Central Eurasia. Once he was in the formation, he would follow them to Lodonia, the lab where Stella was probably held according to Commander La Flaga. It made sense since Stella and her teammates came from the labs at Lodonia. He flew for an hour before finding a squad of Windams heading for Lodonia; Shinn told the squad leader his fabricated story of being on a black-ops mission in Central Eurasia. The squad leader allowed Shinn to join the formation and the flew to Lodonia. During the flight, Shinn overheard some of the mobile suit pilots talk about the important prisoner being held at Lodonia. Two pilots were outraged by Djbril's plan to use someone for a trap. Shinn's eyes widened when he heard that Djbril had placed a trap for him. 'This changes everything ,' thought Shinn as he thought about what to do when got there now that he knew he was walking into a trap. Shinn spent the rest of the flight thinking about what to do until they got to Lodonia.

Earth Forces Research Facility, Lodonia

Once the squad of Windams landed, Shinn disembarked from his Windam making sure he had the remote detonator with him once he found Stella. He checked his back pocket and the detonator was there. He grabbed a pistol along with two clips for it and some grenades Momo Ashton left for him. Shinn took a deep breath made sure that his helmet was tinted so the cameras couldn't identify him. Shinn made his way through the facility and was horrified to see that the Earth Forces were training and torturing children to become soldiers. It was horrible for Shinn to see; he watched as a little six year-old girl was roped to a pole and was about to be shot. Shinn heard as the little girl cried, "I want my mommy, I want my mommy." Shinn saw that a nine year-old boy stood armed with a machine gun ready to shoot the little girl and three handlers armed themselves with a pistol. The boy was struggling to pull the trigger but couldn't pull it because he could see the tears following from girl's eyes. Shinn looked into his pack left for him by the four mobile suit pilots that deserted the Neo-Dominion and noticed that a silencer was placed in there for him. Shinn was pleased to see that he had silencer to use along with the pistol. He threaded the silencer as fast as he could to hopefully save the little girl. Shinn could hear the handlers shout at the boy to shoot the girl. Once the silencer securely threaded to the pistol's muzzle, he pointed the pistol at the boy from a corner covered in shadow. The boy refused to shoot the girl and handlers became furious with him as they readied their pistols. Shinn changed his target to the handlers and shot them quickly before they shot the two kids. He came out of the shadows and talked with the children. Shinn untied the little girl and turned to the boy.

"Hey, mahalo kind sir," said the little girl as she bowed to Shinn.

"She said thank you," the boy translated for Shinn. "Ashley is from Hawaii. My name is Eric Sanchez, I'm from la Madrid en la España."

"He said he's from Madrid, Spain," translated Ashley. "Hey, are you from ZAFT?"

Shinn nodded as he put his index finger up to his mouth to indicate silence. Ashley and Eric looked at each other and gave each other a curt nod.

"Let me guess you're here about the prisoner that's being held in an empty surgery room," guessed Eric. Shinn nodded and he replied, "She's important to me and to the Gundam Peacekeepers."

"You're talking about the new alliance of Naturals and Coordinators, right?" asked Eric.

"Yeah," answered Shinn softly.

"Oh, you're in love with the prisoner," said Ashley in a playful teasing tone. Shinn's face became red from embarrassment as he nodded to Ashley's question.

"Oh relax, we won't tell anyone," assured Eric. "We'll help you out; what do you want us to do?"

"Start spreading word that the Gundam Peacekeepers are coming to attack the facility; spread the word to anyone who was some beef with the Alliance and try to keep it on the down low."

Eric and Ashley split up and began spreading word to anyone they knew who had a beef with the Alliance about the incoming attack on the facility. Once word had spread to those chosen to know about the attack, Ashley headed to the server room and took it over to provide Shinn with technical support and Eric went to work on surveillance watching any Logos agents he knew about and any aggressive handlers that might slow Shinn down. Ashley used her genius to create a private line between the security room, her computer she stole from a Logos tech nerd and a headset she gave to Shinn. The headset had been reprogrammed for communication by Ashley's computer and anyone else linked to her computer. Ashley took a deep breath and attached her wireless headset to her left ear and began checking her system.

"Okay you two," began Ashley as she checked the COM system, "give me a check on your headset."

"Eric here," responded Eric, "es buen aquí."

"Shinn Asuka, I'm still waiting where you left me," reported Shinn.

"Alright I've got you two tagged on my tracking software," said Ashley as she constantly typed commands on her computer. "Okay Shinn, the prisoner is still she's been left; head down the hall thirty meters and then take a right. Eric, keep an eye on the security cameras and the prisoner."

"Sí," acknowledged Eric.

Shinn walked thirty meters and turned right to another intersection and waited for Ashley to give him another set of directions. Eric kept a close eye on the cameras looking at the door to the server room and monitored Stella.

"So far, so good amigo," said Eric over the headset as he kept a stern eye on the cameras.

"Okay Shinn head twenty meters down the hallway and turn left," instructed Ashley. "Once you do that, head fifty meters till you get to the medical wing."

"Got it," acknowledged Shinn as he continued his journey into the facility.

"Un momento Shinn," said Eric. "Dos Logos goons are getting ready to turn right and in your direction, amigo."

"I got 'em," responded Ashley as she furiously typed commands to cause a malfunction to a nearby electronic lock. "There, now they should respond to the malfunction."

"Copy on the door malfunction," confirmed Eric. "Los Logos goons have stopped; better get a move on it amigo before they fix the problem."

"Roger that," acknowledged Shinn as he hurried past William and Adam while they were busy swearing and cursing on the door malfunctioning.

Once Shinn made it past the two Logos agents, Ashley typed commands to release the electronic lock on the door. This caused William and Adam to stumble forward out the door and on the floor. Shinn wanted to laugh but he had to keep his focus on Stella. Shinn made his way to the medical wing entrance and discovered that an electronic lock was keeping him from entering.

"I need help entering the medical wing," requested Shinn.

"Working on the lock now," said Ashley as she hacked into the electronic security system. Shinn waited for three minutes before Ashley cracked the system and released the electronic lock for Shinn.

"There you go," said Ashley cheerfully as she went back to the map she had on Stella's location. "Now enter the wing and head forty meters till you reach a Y intersection; turn right… no turn left and proceed fifteen meters."

"Ashley," called Eric, "no miro en el hospital."

"Working on that," responded Ashley as she took over control of the Medical wing's security system and transferred visual to Eric.

"Ah, yo miro," Eric said in Spanish, "gracias amiga."

Ashley nodded and took a deep breath as she grabbed a soda can stole from a vending machine by hacking it's dispensing program and opening it and took a drink. Now Ashley felt refreshed and was able to focus on her task.

While Shinn was making his way toward Stella, the Archangel and Minerva began it's advance to the Lodonia laboratory. Rey had protested Captain Gladys's motives but Captain Gladys wouldn't change her mind in their joint attack on the Earth Forces' lab. She told Rey that they were crippling the Earth Forces military strength and Lodonia's destruction would reveal to the world about more atrocities that the Earth Forces were committing. The last statement pleased Rey and said he would make sure that Chairman Durandal was notified of the successful mission. Meyrin sent a reply to the anonymous freedom fighter of the mission's start.

"Heads up guys," chimed in Ashley, "I just got word from the Minerva that they're on their way here and get here in three hours. We better get to her before Djbril suspects something's up."

"Sí, ensegiuda, right away," acknowledged Eric.

"Roger that Ashley," responded Shinn as he stopped at his destination.

Shinn peered in the window and saw Stella bound to a chair and a little blood running down her face from what looked to be from interrogation.

"Hey I found Stella!" exclaimed Shinn.

"Shh, keep it down amigo," instructed Eric. "The walls have ears."

Shinn was puzzled and then understood that there might be someone listening nearby.

"I'm releasing the lock now," Ashley informed Shinn as her fingers danced on the keyboard as she quickly typed commands to release the electronic lock.

Within thirty seconds the electronic lock released the door and Shinn opened the door slowly and with caution. Once he opened the door he slowly approached Stella sweeping the wide room with his pistol. As he approached Stella he noticed a viewing window from a luxury suite. Shinn went back to the door and turned toward the window aiming his pistol at the viewing window looking to see if someone was watching. Luckily for Shinn, no one was watching and he slowly moved toward Stella. Once he was at Stella's side he holstered his pistol and gently shook her awake. Stella slowly opened her eyes and saw an Earth Forces mobile pilot taking off his helmet. She noticed that it was Shinn that snuck into the facility to save her. She was happy and wanted to say something but Shinn quieted her and began cutting rope to free her.

"I knew you would come for me," Stella whispered softly to Shinn. "I just knew you'd come."

"Shinn, Djbril is heading your way," warned Ashley. "You'd better hurry and get her out of there before he gets to the viewing room."

"Can you stall and buy me some time?" asked Shinn.

"I'll try and hold him off," answered Ashley, "but I can't promise to hold him forever."

"I don't need forever," responded Shinn. "I just need a few minutes to get back into the main facility."

"Why are you going back into the main facility?" asked Ashley.

"I need to find the Gaia Gundam," answered Shinn.

Ashley paused and Eric chimed in, "I saw the Gaia in a separate hangar."

"Hold on a minute," said Ashley as she tapped her keyboard relentlessly. "Eric is right about Gaia's location. Back track to the facility; I'll release the door to let you and your girlfriend back into the facility."

"Roger," acknowledged Shinn as he helped Stella out of the chair and left the large room.

Once Stella was on her feet, she gently pushed Shinn away but held his hand. Shinn lead the way back to the facility.

"Okay, we're back in the main facility," Shinn reported to Ashley.

"Proceed forty meters and go left," instructed Ashley. "Then head down the hallway for thirty five meters and take another left. This will take you past the lair of the evil guy."

Shinn and Stella made swift progress as they lightly jogged to the hangar where Stella's Gaia was being held.

"Alright Shinn Eric and I have to get this revolt underway," said Ashley as she packed up her stolen laptop. "I have disabled the security cameras in the hangar. But you'll need to let me know when you get to the Gaia; because there's a self-detonation feature if anybody tries to pilot it."

"Got it," acknowledged Shinn.

Stella was silent the whole time Shinn was communicating with Ashley and Eric. She weakly smiled at the fact that Shinn had found allies in the facility who helped him find her.

Djbril was not happy with having to deal with malfunctioning doors and his day was going to get worse once he entered the viewing room. He entered his room and went straight to his private viewing room to check on his prisoner. Instead of looking out the window, he grabbed a wine glass and some fancy Tuscany dry white wine. He was in an angry mood he thought that a glass of wine could fix.

"Hey Ashley," Shinn said over his headset, "We need you to deactivate the self-destruct on the Gaia."

"Give me a minute to set up," said Ashley as she opened her laptop. "Okay the self-destruct on the Gaia, right?" Ashley typed fast for a Natural being turned into an Extended.

"And presto," said Ashley as she closed her laptop, "no more self-destruct on the Gaia. Good luck Shinn; make sure you take care of her and protect her."

"Hey don't say that," said Shinn as he and Stella got in the Gaia.

"Amigo don't worry about us," assured Eric. "You just get tu novia out of here before the fireworks begin. Leave it to us to cause the damage and chaos."

"If you don't hear from us," said Ashley, "then you make sure you lay a lei of Hibiscus flowers at a memorial on the Big Island at a shrine dedicated to Hawaii's greatest king. The shrine is where the souls of Hawaiians go when they die."

Shinn tried to protest but Stella pulled him in Gaia's cockpit and she suddenly gained a sense of renewed strength as she piloted the Gaia out of the hangar. Once out of the hangar, the Gaia began destroying certain areas of the facility where children weren't being held. Stella told Shinn she was marking the right targets for the rescue force to hit so they didn't kill any children by mistake. The Gaia then headed into the forest to wait for their rescue. Once in the forest, Ashley came on Gaia's visual COM.

"Where are you two at?" asked Ashley.

"We're three kilometers west from the facility in the forest," Stella answered for Shinn.

"I see the damsel in distress is fully alert," observed Ashley. Stella was going to counter back but Shinn told her it was Ashley's way of playfully teasing. Ashley then said, "Alright make sure you two stay there and I'll let the Minerva know where you two are so they don't hit you. Just make sure you both don't get caught by the Earth Forces."

Shinn and Stella gave a nod of acknowledgement as Ashley cut the transmission. Shinn gave a sigh of relief and took off his helmet. Stella took her helmet off as well after transforming the Gaia into it's animal form to hide it in the forest. She smiled and turned to Shinn who smiled back at her. Within an hour of their escape, the fireworks began as the Gundam Peacekeepers attacked the facility and liberated the children. The facility fell within an hour but Djbril escaped as the Gundam Peacekeepers began their attack. Kira looked for Shinn and Stella in the forest as directed by the six year-old genius from Hawaii. Much to Kira's surprise, Shinn and Stella weren't in the cockpit of the Gaia but napping under a tree nearby. Kira was puzzled on how Shinn and Stella could sleep through a battle that was happening nearby.

"Hey Shinn, Stella," Kira called to the sleepy couple, "need a lift back to the Minerva?"

Shinn and Stella slowly woke up and were startled by the Freedom. Kira apologized and asked the same question to them, which they politely declined stating they could get there by themselves. Shinn and Stella got back on the Gaia and headed back to the Minerva. Once they got out of the Gaia, most of the crew were there greet them. They gave both of them an applause for the actions they did. Everyone applauded Shinn and Stella except for Rey, who gave Shinn a nasty glare. To Rey, Stella was nothing but a distraction for Shinn and with Stella back on board the Minerva he wouldn't be able to control Shinn.

Three months past after Lodonia's destruction and many fact anti-Coordinator factions were either giving up and forcibly disbanded by the Gundam Peacekeepers. The Earth Forces had retaliated by driving into Western Eurasia and unleashed new destructive weapons to draw out the hard pressed band of peacekeepers and stretched their patience and ability to work together as a team. Rey eventually left the Minerva after Operation Angel Down ended with the Archangel's supposed destruction. Shinn had received a new Gundam called Destiny and Rey had received the Legend and asked for a transfer to the Lunar Fleet. Chairman Durandal was puzzled by Rey's request and figured out that he was unsuccessful in trying to get Shinn wrapped around his little finger. The PLANT Chairman made a decision that he would come to regret once the Archangel showed up at Gibraltar and aided in the Minerva's escape and defection. Now with the Minerva as officially a full time member of the Gundam Peacekeepers, Kira thought things might get smoother and that there would be fewer operations. The three ships then took off and headed into space to retrieve Commander Yszak Joule and Commander Dearka Elsman since they joined the Gundam Peacekeepers once they learned that Chairman Durandal was going to unleash the Destiny Plan. The group planned on heading to the moon but were blinded by a flash of light and found a mobile suit floating lifeless with four people gathered around it.

"Great now who the hell are they?" asked Shinn as he eyed the mobile suit.


End file.
